Christians are often taken in by those who are less than truthful. It is not a character flaw to expect others to tell the truth, or to assume that their testimonies to the grace of God in Christ are factual. So, it comes as a shock and a disappointment when dramatic conversions and the books which recount them are discovered to be more fictional than factual. Sadly there have been a number of these, but a couple stand out in my memory.

Crying Wind purported to be the account of a young native American girl (whose real name was Linda Davison Stafford) who claimed a dramatic conversion experience as recounted in her compelling and heart-warming autobiography. Crying Wind—both the book’s title and the author’s pseudonym at the time—was published by Moody Press in 1977. She became a popular church and conference speaker, dressed as a native American as she recounted her dramatic conversion. It was followed by a sequel, My Searching Heart in 1980, published by Harvest House.

We sold cases of them and Crying Wind may have been our best-seller for a time shortly after its release.

But significant factual discrepancies arose regarding her story—enough so that Moody Press changed the original cover in 1978 to the one pictured above. Crying Wind was now a “biographical novel,” which I take to mean, “here’s a book about the stuff I made up about myself.”

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