About Writing, Celebrity, and Christian "culture"

I've mentioned before that I am reading Dane Ortlund's Gentle and Lowly, which I recommend. But I was looking at the back of the book at the endorsements, the "blurbs." One of them is by Rosario Butterfield. 

Now, I have to wonder what the deal is with Rosario, or any of the other people on the back of his book. I've read Rosario's book and liked it a lot, except for her defense of not using hymns because that is what her (very small) denomination does. She was a lesbian and atheist feminist college professor who came to Christ and gave up lesbianism. It's a compelling read and shows the power of friendship in evangelism. 

But what makes her a celebrity, an expert, on why I should read the book?  Well, she wrote a relatively popular and controversial book. She was on a commission about sexual ethics. She has a compelling story. She is educated, a Ph.D. She is  pastor's wife.

I have friends who have been on the mission field for decades preaching the gospel in obscurity. No one will put their blurbs on the back of a book. (Perhaps I will next time?) No one knows their names in the wider public. But they are no less experts on the gospel. They are educated, they have compelling stories, in their way.

How much we accept the values of the cosmos! How much these foolish ways will be corrected in eternity.