Delivered From Temptation
From Temptation to Salvation
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I guess I'd have to say that even as a child I had a longing--a spiritual void. As a kid, I went to Catholic church sometimes with my father’s people. I never "got" all the empty rites and rituals and "costumes". Plus, the mass being in Latin was utterly useless and entirely impractical, to say the least. Not only that, the Catholic kids were biased against me because I was only half Italian and because I didn’t know about their rule of “not eating meat on Fridays”, which, of course, the Catholic church changed when the pressure came, much like their birth control pill rule. But nope, “it” wasn’t there for me. In later years, I discovered that people like me were known as “seekers”. And I sought--here, there and everywhere. At about fifteen, for a while I went to a Methodist church (with a friend, I guess--certainly not my mother). But selling hard candy and hayrides didn’t do it for me, either. I did have a few Sunday School classes there. That must be where I picked up the psalms and verses that are still familiar to me. Or perhaps I learned them in school; I think back then it was “acceptable” for schools to say things like “God, in the olden days. Years (and life) went by, with me struggling all the way--no God in my life. I met David, we had the baby, we broke up. He and The Temptations were hot and touring the country and overseas a lot. This was when he was with first Tammi and then Tonya, but we still saw each other too, off and on. Then when David Junior was a baby, as I mentioned earlier, I finally got “involved” with someone else. An ex-friend of David's, he had so conveniently become my "shoulder to cry on" over him. As he turned out to be yet another misogynist and manipulator; of course he did. This man was scary. And I was dangerously naive. He had a good one in me. He intimidated me and controlled me both physically and emotionally. He was into pills and would hold me down and literally shove them down my throat when he wanted to. He didn’t have a key to my apartment, but felt free to break out my window and unlock the door whenever the mood hit him. I found it very difficult to extricate myself from that situation. And, yes, he beat me too. I vaguely remember running down the street (high) in my nightgown at dawn one morning in an attempt to escape. Of course, he easily caught me. I had lost control of my life. In my desperate need for something spiritual, when he wanted to build an “altar’ in the room, I didn’t--or couldn’t--object. I never really understood what exactly was going on with all that, but I did ultimately begin to believe that he was actually into satanism and the altar was there to worship satan. I believe he called satan in there at least three different times that I can think of. Once, “something” touched my fingertips as we both lay on our backs on the bed with arms stretched toward the ceiling. Ok, it may have been intensified by the pill high, but something did happen. And once I saw a black ball of energy dash around the living room baseboard and disappear. That time, I wasn’t high. Also, in the name of my quest, I used to read a lot of so-called self-help books. I read some weird books too--I think today they'd be classified as"New Age". One of them--The Supernatural"--had a black dust cover with a close-up of just a pair of piercing eyes staring out. This man tried to burn it on my snow-covered porch in order to--he said--close the door for satan to come through. The cover burned; all except for the eyes. They didn’t burn. They just stared back at him from the snow. Very confusing. So, nope, the thing I sought wasn’t there at that altar either! That’s for sure! I took the David Junior and left with my agent for Los Angeles supposedly for some dancing gig which never manifested. So I had very little money, no job, and had to find a cheap motel for us to stay. I was basically walking around, not sure of where to go or what to do. I’m sure I looked just like what I was--somebody in a daze who just fell off the turnip truck from the Midwest. Someone on a street somewhere in Hollywood talked to me and led me by the hand into some nearby basement. I wasn’t high, but it was so strange that it is all just a surrealistic blur. There was no furniture, just a room full of what looked like hippies (well, a lot of people looked like hippies--whatever that means--in a way back then, even “normal” people, so who knows), but they were packed in the basement rooms shoulder-to-shoulder kneeling on the floor. With hands raised, they were all talking loudly in what sounded like some strange gobble-de-gook chant to me. I thought it was some kind of druggie cult and hightailed it back out of there as fast as I could. I didn‘t know what I had gotten into! As I climbed out, I squinted against the sun, but it was good to see it's bright light again!
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About the Book
Readers of my earlier book--a memoir--may have been left with mixed feelings about it. Perhaps they felt that there was “something” wrong or missing. Maybe there was nothing redemptive about it or it had no “purpose”. Maybe it seemed unfinished or was just “off”. It was hard to put your finger on. After publication, I eventually came to realize these things, but never quite knew what the exact problem was. I just knew that it was out-of-balance. In 1999, a book that was written by David's oldest brother was published. I didn't read it until maybe seven years later, but when I did, I was instantly free. The book told in some detail what it was like to be a child in the Ruffin house. Time and place notwithstanding, the fact is that the father was extremely cruel to them. At that point, I was able to see David as a victim himself. Reading the details of those horrific experiences freed me of the anger, resentment and bitterness I had harbored for many years over how David had treated me and even our son. In the place of those feelings came a feeling of understanding; yes, even the gift of compassion. I understood that abuse was all he was ever taught; I was more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I forgave him. After all, how is a boy to learn what it is to be a man if he isn't taught by his father's Godly example? Thus, I was led to rewrite my memoir by giving my “testimony” of coming to Jesus in 2004 and by allowing people to know about David's childhood. I was also given other corrections, and title and cover. Now it all makes perfect sense!
About the Author
Genna Sapia-Ruffin is a baby boomer who was born and educated in Baltimore. In 1964, she met David Ruffin of The Temptations in nearby Annapolis. That was the day that she came face-to-face with her destiny. In a few months and at his urging, she moved to his town of Detroit to be with him. A couple of years later, they became the parents of David's only son. Thus, although it was in Maryland that she was born and educated, it was in Detroit that she was raised and schooled. Her abusive and confusing childhood had been far from idyllic, but was a mere glimmer of what lay ahead in Michigan. Having kept a diary for years--and no longer able to resist the drive to do so--she began the painstaking job of gathering, organizing and chronicling the scribbled notes of her chaotic life. In 2002, her book entitled “A Memoir: David Ruffin--My Temptation” was ultimately published. Now with the discovery of important information about David's childhood--and with the salvation of her soul through Christ--she is inspired to complete that story here in “Delivered From Temptation”. She now aspires to a career in speaking with the hope of inspiring and encouraging people who find themselves dealing with some situations she too has faced--and survived to tell. This is where her passion lies and her attention is focused. Even as a new Christian, she believes that this is what she was born to do. She'd like to speak in prisons, churches and schools in hopes of saving someone from the destruction that ignorance in parenting and in drug use inevitably brings. In 1992, a year after David's death, she once more moved away from Detroit and now enjoys a warmer and more peaceful environment.