Former Lesbian: 'Why I Signed the Nashville Statement'

20 years ago, Rosaria Butterfield lived as a lesbian. "I delighted in my lover, our home on one of the Finger Lakes, our Golden Retrievers and our careers. When Christ claimed me for His own, I did not stop feeling like a lesbian. I did not fall out of love with women. I was not converted out of homosexuality. I was converted out of unbelief," Butterfield wrote on the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood's website.  

Last week, Butterfield signed The Nashville Statement, a document which affirms traditional marriage between one man and one woman. She says the issue is not primarily homosexuality; it's scripture.

The Nashville Statement seeks to reaffirm traditional Christian values on sexuality. It affirms God's design for marriage as "a covenantal, sexual, procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman." It also says chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage are affirmed as the clear teaching of the Bible and denies that God designed marriage "to be a homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous relationship." 

The statement denies that same-sex attraction "is part of the natural goodness of God's original creation, or that it puts a person outside the hope of the gospel."  

"Conversion to Christ did not initially change my sexual attraction for women," Butterfield wrote. "What conversion did change immediately was my heart and mind. My mind was on fire for the Bible and I could not read enough of it. The gospel gave me a light that was ruinous. It ruined me for the life I had loved. The gospel destroyed me before the Lord built me back up. In saying yes to Jesus and no to the desires of my flesh, I learned that the only way to peace with my God was through the Cross; the one that Jesus died on and the one that I was called, with the help of Jesus, to carry."

"I learned that sin does not lose its character as sin because I loved it. I learned that my homosexuality was a logical consequence of the fall of man. We gain more than we lose when we pick up our cross and for many of us, our cross demands forsaking the sexual sin that calls us by name," she continued.

Butterfield said she signed the Nashville Statement because, "I stand with Biblical orthodoxy, which is inseparable from God's creation mandate and definition of gendered personhood found in the Bible, 'So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them.' I signed the Nashville Statement because my conscience compels me so, because the promises of liberty on the world's terms are false and deceptive, and because many who currently claim to have Christ's forgiveness and salvation must be called to account for leading good people astray with false promises and filthy lies.

"I signed the Nashville Statement because the wolves are prowling, and the lions are roaring, and because they are bold and proud of their heresy, and because you must be warned."