SAVAGE SHEPHERDS
One man's story of overcoming spiritual abuse
By Adam Harbinson. Authentic Media. 122 pages, £7.99
ISBN 978 1 86024 574 9
This is the moving story of a man who was rescued from a life of debauchery by a church which showed ‘a degree of God’s compassion and mercy’ towards him and brought him into a life in which his ‘house was always full of people, laughter, happiness and noise…’ However, when he began to question the teachings and practices of the church, he was subjected to great pressure to conform. When he finally left the church, attempts were made to discredit and even destroy him. The story can be summed up in the words, debauchery, deliverance, doubts, departure, and (almost) destruction. It is a record of spiritual abuse.
Prior to his conversion he was, to use his own words, ‘hard-drinking, fast-living’, ‘unfaithful to [his] wife’, ‘profligate’, ‘wild, unscrupulous’, and living ‘a life of depravity’.
