Overview

""Holy Disobedience is a visceral portrayal of a daughter's quest for the dark truth beneath the religious veneer of forced beauty and familial cover-ups. Spiers's writing is propulsive and intelligent."" -Tia Levings, author of the New York Times bestselling A Well-Trained Wife Holy Disobedience is a gripping, unflinching story by Melissa Duge Spiers about growing up in the shadow of control, silence, and secrets within the strict, fundamentalist Seventh-day Adventist Church. When Melissa learns that her father, a respected pastor, was a serial child predator shielded by the church, her world implodes. But this revelation is only the beginning. From being beaten for resisting a childhood home perm to seducing a forbidden public-school athlete to reclaim her autonomy, Melissa's early years were shaped by repression, shame, and indoctrination. Her escape from high-control religion launched her into a life of risk: Wall Street jobs, New York nightclubs, Hollywood hookups, and a series of abusive relationships. And yet, in these extremes, she was searching. Through self-reflection and finding her voice, and through an unexpected friendship with her father's first victim, Melissa slowly reconstructs the self she was never allowed to know. Holy Disobedience is not just a survivor's tale. It's a story of fierce honesty, radical freedom, and the beautiful mess of becoming whole.

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9781957687735

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Reviews

""This riveting story is full of danger, sexually-charged energy, religious trauma, and vivid glamour; Spiers's writing is propulsive and intelligent as she calls out lies, enablers, and abusers-even when she's the one pushing herself to the extreme. I was rooting for her on every page, and her story will help set others free. Tia Levings, author of the New York Times bestselling A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy ""In Holy Disobedience, Melissa Duge Spiers gives us an unflinching look at the toxic sludge that lies just beneath the surface of patriarchal, high-control religion. As she struggles to escape its quicksand, her journey of self-discovery moves from the superficial to the real and ultimately charts a path toward the freedom of her own self."" Christa Brown, author of Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation ""Melissa is an incredible writer, and she expertly illustrates how high-control religions and religious purity culture prime women for abuse and silence. While exposing widespread and systemic abuse in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, she demonstrates great empathy and compassion even for those who cause harm. Melissa's writing is unexpectedly hilarious and warm, and I laughed out loud at times. Purity culture survivors won't want to miss this one, as stories like this have never been more urgent."" Erica Smith, MEd, author of The Purity Culture Recovery Guide and creator of The Purity Culture Dropout(TM) Program ""I laughed, I cried, I raged, and I cheered alongside the author. Holy Disobedience is a brave, penetrating memoir about spiritual abuse, bodily control, and the slow, defiant work of claiming autonomy. It offers something rare and necessary: language for the harm and a release to stop apologizing for surviving it. If you've ever been confined in the straitjacket of a faith that worships the appearance of goodness to cover its nefarious deeds, let this book grant you permission to rage until you break free."" Katherine Spearing, author of A Thousand Tiny Paper Cuts: The Subtle Insidious Nature of Spiritual Abuse and Life on the Other Side ""Raw and courageous, these pages expose spiritual abuse, illuminate the shadowed history of Seventh-day Adventism, and transform inherited pain into power and advocacy. Her story grants readers permission to grieve their own losses without apology or the need to soothe others' discomfort. As she writes, 'I will no longer do pretty pain.'"" Stephanie Warren, writer and podcast host of Focus on Your Own Family ""A pastor's daughter, Melissa Duge Spiers takes an unflinching look at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a community that has escaped much scrutiny in the past century. Not only does Melissa vulnerably share the harm she experienced, but she also digs into the systemic and theological issues that have impacted countless like her. Compelling and insightful, this is an important addition to the growing genre of memoirs about high-control religion."" Cait West, author of Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy

Author Information

Melissa Duge Spiers is an award-winning essayist, screenwriter, and advocate for topics of religious abuse and resilience, utilizing her online platforms (TikTok and Instagram, known as ""The Glory Whole"") to raise awareness and help others find healing. Her memoir Holy Disobedience won the 2022 Book Pipeline Unpublished Nonfiction Manuscript prize, with excerpts featured in The Huffington Post. Melissa's writing appears in magazines nationwide, and she's a contributor to Take the Fruit: An Anthology of Religious Trauma. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College and is based in California.

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