I’m telling this story because James White, Doug Wilson, Tom Buck, and Tom Ascol are promoting Rosaria Butterfield as of late, and I’m convinced that none of them have read her material in depth. Most have applauded Butterfield for this comment and thus assumed that she shares their sexual ethic…
Some folks will never learn that we don’t need “ex-gay” celebrities who – like Rosaria – turn their past sin into a present celebrity.
Pulpit & Pen will be releasing excerpts from Rosaria’s various works on the subject of homosexuality and demonstrate in the coming days that her position is virtually identical to that of Sam Allberry. She is not theologically sound on the topic of homosexuality and only looks so in comparison to the more radical end of the gay Christian spectrum.
In the meantime, let me recall this story from the 2017 G3 conference.
“MY GOOD FRIEND, KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR”
Polemics Report hosted a booth with the Bible Thumping Wingnut Network at the 2017 G3 Conference in Atlanta. As the conference progressed, I was standing behind my booth and Rosaria approached with her husband behind her.
“Why are you here?” she demanded.
I did not know who she was.
“I’m here for the conference, why are you here?” I answered.
“I’m a speaker and I want to know why you’re here,” she continued.
Her demeanor was so demanding and unpleasant that a small crowd began to develop just from overhearing her tone of voice. One stander-by was pro-active enough to get a photo of Butterfield’s inappropriate and angry aggressiveness on her phone.
Rosaria asked, “Why are you always attacking my good friend, Karen Swallow Prior? She is my good friend, why are you always attacking her? She is very solid!“
Still not quite knowing who Rosaria was, I kept my calm and explained gently and kindly the problems with Karen Swallow Prior because she asked.
I explained just the shortlist of the problems with Prior, who is thankfully now recognized as exactly who I said she was back in 2015…a radical liberal. In fact, the men mentioned above -White, Wilson, Buck, and Ascol – would all go on to see some of the same problems I saw with Prior and I’m not alone in my assessments now even though I was then.
Butterfield demanded I apologize for saying [factual] things about Karen Swallow Prior, again reiterating that she is “solid” and I politely declined.
The exchange lasted just a few minutes, before Rosaria stormed off in a huff, again, with her husband in tow.
Witnesses to this event and/or the orbiting events to happen later are Tim Hurd and Len Pettis (both of BTWN), Cameron Buettel and Fred Butler (of Grace to You, the booth next to us), and Darlene Johnson (the wife of Phil Johnson). Also nearby was my pastor/elder, Paul Richter.
The woman who was pro-active enough to take a photograph on her camera of Rosaria’s tirade was Darlene Johnson. That photograph later demonstrated that Rosaria lied when she said I went out on the floor and approached her, but that she came up to my booth.
As Rosaria left, the crowd of on-lookers gathered around me to talk about how “surreal” it was to watch Rosaria Butterfield angrily confront someone and be so militantly aggressive. They also scoffed that she thought Karen Swallow Prior was “solid.”
Mrs. Johnson predicted that Rosaria was probably heading directly to Josh Buice to complain about the controversy I supposedly caused (mind you, I was behind my booth and she came up to me and started pointing her finger).
Within a few minutes, Buice came to the booth and asked me to leave G3.
When I asked Buice why, he said that Rosaria told him that I walked up to her, ‘accosted’ her and attacked her friend. There was some confusion between Buice and I as to whether or not Rosaria was claiming that there was another woman with her or not, and Buice was at first convinced there were two women involved; Rosaria and her friend, Karen.
I explained to Buice that Rosaria was flat-out lying about our encounter, and asked that he speak to Ms. Johnson and the crowd around me who saw it unfold. Buice said that he would get back to me in short order.
In the meantime, several G3 speakers, (whose names I won’t mention) explained to Buice who Karen Swallow Prior was and how awful she is.
Buice spoke to the witnesses and came back and later apologized to me and said that I could stay. Buice later messaged me and told me he did not think I was in error. He told me that I handled myself with respect and he thanked me for coming.
[Editor’s Note: We had posted a screenshot of this discussion, but on 11.22.19 we removed it due to special request from Josh Buice.]
The ‘person in question’ was Karen Swallow Prior. He gathered I handled myself with respect because I did.
During Rosaria’s “talk” at G3 she mentioned a “huckster in the exhibit hall who hates female writers” in reference to me. I mentioned this to Buice, who said that her comment would be edited out the video that would later be put on the Internet. Again, Buice mentioned my restraint.
[Editor’s Note: As before, we had posted a screenshot of this discussion, but we removed it due to special request from Josh Buice.]
I wrote briefly about this in the Pulpit Bunker shortly after…
Before Wilson, White, Buck, and Ascol go all-in and chips-down on Rosaria Butterfield as a better ex-gay alternative to Revoice culture, they should really pause to make sure that her position on Same-Sex Attraction isn’t nearly identical to that of Sam Allberry.
After all, Rosaria Butterfield says Karen Swallow Prior is “really solid.”
Do you really want to hitch your ex-gay wagon to that?
