SALVAGED! A Documented Account of My Spiritual Rescue and Conversion

The subtitle pretty much sums up what the book is about-it's a documented account of my conversion to the Christian faith, specifically to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To help establish the credibility of my story, I went back into my files and pulled out copies of letters and other media that I felt would convince any jury/reader that the old prodigal in me was no imposter. Similarly, I compiled a set of contrasting proofs to make the case that the "new creature" in me was neither a fake, nor a fluke. These two antipodal bodies of evidence are separated by a transformative religious experience. Admittedly, this is an unorthodox approach for telling a conversion story, but when reduced to its simplest terms, perhaps no more so than a pair of "before and after" photographs in a home renovation ad.

I was born in Los Angeles in 1947. A mix of childhood memories of moving back and forth between the Arkansas Ozarks and the California Mojave Desert undoubtedly helped me to get good grades on my geography tests, but there's little else about those years to wax nostalgic about. A short stint in the Army in 1966-67 followed by a raging bull kind of charge into the post-'60s counterculture, and all that that implies, set the stage for a mental health crisis during the 70's. By then there was no question that the parable of the prodigal son was mine to reprise. Most likely I'd still be "wallowing with the swine" if I hadn't gotten sick and tired of hearing myself say I'm sick and tired of it...when I knew I wasn't. By hearing that confession while on my knees praying for the first time as a middle-aged man, the God of heaven and earth may have taken that as a cue to enter the picture. Because that's what happened "Big Time" on a starry November evening in 1981...the year in which I was born again.

Keywords: True, Religious, Survival, Dramatic, Candid, Unconventional, Well-Documented, Inspirational, Testimony, Literary