The Delivered Prey

Mormon conversion stories are like the ones in The Bible---the same redemptive pattern runs through both. Mine's no exception. But that's where the similarity ends Instead of recounting my conversion in a conventional narrative style, I offer readers two sets of contrasting papers by which they can judge its authenticity Indeed, if the prodigal son had kept copies of his letters during & after his years of "riotous living," he might've published a book like this one. To expand on the short summary of my book, please read the following excerpts from its "introduction" that will describe 1) the unique documentary approach I used to put my conversion on trial, and, 2) why I'm hoping that the evidence is good enough for a conviction. "But I want my past to catch up with me for another reason. I once heard a story about a man who appeared before a judge to be tried as a Christian, but the verdict came back "not guilty"---that's a sobering thought. I pray that won't be the case with me. Second only to my hope that this book will help my family and friends---and anyone else who reads it---to believe in the Message of the Restoration more than they already do, is my hope that there's enough evidence in it to convict me on a number of counts of having been "born again." (Jn. 3:7). "An open-and-shut case could have been made for my conversion if a film had been shot of my comings and goings in the years following the end of the Vietnam War protest movement in l973. It seemed like that was the event that ushered in a period in which I was cast into the lead role in a remake of the movie Rebel without a Cause---Hollywood's take on the parable of the prodigal son." But as far as I know there's not a single frame of raw footage anywhere to document what it was like for me to fill "my belly with husks that the swine do eat" (Lk. 15: 13-17), or what it was like to disgorge them. Instead, what I came out with was the next best thing---a thinly illustrated, two part book of "curious workmanship." (Ether 10: 27). "PART ONE contains a collection of "carnally minded media---personal letters, poetry, art work---generated between l975 and l981, a downward spiraling six year period in which my extremities became God's beginnings. "PART TWO, with its own body of evidence, or "fruits meet for repentance," covers that celestial event and the years of deliverance (Isa. 49:25) that followed, beginning with a copy of a "spiritually-minded" poem written in l982."