Files in this archive:

CONTENTS      You're reading it now
FORMAT.NOT    General notes on composition and structure of       
              textfiles 
WARNKE.TXT    main article:  "Selling Satan: The Tragic History of 
              Mike Warnke," by Jon Trott and Mike Hertenstein     
              (senior editors) 
DATES.TXT     sidebar:  "Why the Dates Don't Work," Trott &       
              Hertenstein 
EDUCATN.TXT   sidebar:  "Higher Education?" Trott & Hertenstein
PUBTRUST.TXT  article:  "Public Trust," by Bob and Gretchen       
              Passantino (associate editors)
KAIZREPL.TXT  column:  "Kaiz Replies," by Glenn Kaiser (senior    
              editor) 
CAPTIONS.TXT  photo captions and credits accompanying the main    
              article

Contents of this archive:

This archive contains the full text of a major expos of Mike
Warnke, an alleged ex-Satanist and author of _The Satan Seller_. 
These articles and sidebar columns were originally published in
_Cornerstone_ magazine, vol. 21, issue 98, and released publicly in
July 1992.  The contents of the articles, whether in electronic or
paper format, are copyrighted by their respective authors and
should not be republished without permission from the publisher,
_Cornerstone_ magazine.

Copies of the original, full-color magazine with photo
illustrations may be obtained by sending $3.00 to: CORNERSTONE, 939
W. Wilson Ave., Suite 202-C, Chicago, IL  60640.  _Cornerstone_ is
a member of the Evangelical Press Association and the Association
of Investigative Reporters and Editors.  Subscription price is
$15.00 for 12 consecutive issues (approx. 3-5 times a year).  The
authors may be contacted at the address listed above.

Electronic mail with questions or comments may be sent to Eric
Pement, senior editor, at the JPUSA BBS (8:7000/43), (312)
878-6030, or via UUCP mail at "jpusa1.chi.i1.us!jpusa2!eric".














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4.  ELLIPSES
 . . .        Indicates words omitted within a single sentence.  .
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another.


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and stop (like _-this-_), but finally settled on European
guillemets as being the least obtrusive and the most understandable
visually.  Guillemets indicate italics like so, and their codes
are AE hex (174 dec) and AF hex (175 dec), respectively.

   As mentioned earlier, your word processor may remove the 8th bit
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hex) and the right guillemet "" (AF hex) will be changed to a
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externally.

5.2.1  Entering graphics characters

   On several word processors, graphics characters may be entered
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release the ALT key. This procedure can also be used on the DOS
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entered via the numeric keypad on the right of the keyboard:
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the QWERTY letters on the main keyboard.

   Thus, to get the left guillemet,  , press ALT and the digits
"174" on the numeric keypad.  Then release the ALT key.  To get the
dash, press ALT and the digits "196"; then release the ALT key, and
repeat the procedure again.









5.2.2.  Converting graphics characters

   If you should need to convert the IBM graphics characters we
have used for dashes and italics to something else before printing
these documents, the following table gives some suggestions.

  TABLE 1.  CONVERTING TEXT FOR PRINTERS OR WORD-PROCESSORS

  Hex codes to find  and replace with:   REMARKS
  -----------------  -----------------   --------------------------
-  C4,C4              4D,4D               turn dashes back to
hyphens   AE                 ??,??,??,...        change to italics
ON   AF                 ??,??,??,...        change to italics OFF

   You may find it easier to accomplish this in a two-step process.
Step one: change C4 hex (196 decimal) to a hyphen, change AE hex
(174 decimal) to a tilde (~), and change AF hex (175 decimal) to a
vertical bar (|).  The tilde and the vertical bar occur nowhere in
any of the textfiles.  For that matter, neither do the caret, the
at symbol (@), the underscore, the backslash, the angle brackets,
nor the curly braces.  Step two: open up the converted textfile and
use your word processor's search-and-replace feature to change each
occurrence of the tilde to its "italics on" command, and each
occurrence of the vertical bar to its "italics off" or "resume
normal typeface" command.

   If instead you plan to replace the codes we have used for the
dash and for italics with the specific codes your printer requires,
you may need to consult an ASCII chart and your printer's
instruction manual. Most printers use an "escape" sequence, meaning
that the first character is always an ESC (1B hex, 27 decimal).  If
you have any special problems, feel free to drop us a line.  Thanx.

6.  CORRECTIONS

   Typographical errors and misspellings which occurred in the
printed version(s) have been corrected wherever we have noticed
them.  We have also modified the original footnote appearance,
punctuation, etc. to be more in conformity with the Chicago Manual
of Style where possible.

                      Eric Pement
                      Senior editor, Cornerstone
                      UUCP:  jpusa1.chi.i1.us!jpusa2!eric
                      BBS:  (312) 878-6030









 AUTHOR:  Jon Trott and Mike Hertenstein
 SOURCE:  Cornerstone, vol. 21, iss. 98, pp.
7-9,11-14,16-17,19,30,38    DATE:  1992
  TITLE:  Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Michael Warnke  
NOTES:  Copyright 1992 by Cornerstone Communications, Inc.


        "I always wanted to write him a letter and                
         say, `Mike, when were you able to have this              
         coven of fifteen hundred people?' About the              
         most exciting thing we used to do was play               
         croquet."
                       One of Mike Warnke's college friends



                            SELLING SATAN:
                 The Tragic History of Michael Warnke

                   by Jon Trott & Mike Hertenstein



   This is the story of well-known comedian, evangelist, and
professed ex-Satanist Mike Warnke.

   Known as "America's Number One Christian Comedian," Mike Warnke
has sold in excess of one million records. June 29, 1988, was
declared "Mike Warnke Day" by the governor of Tennessee. The Satan
Seller has, according to its author, sold three million copies in
twenty years.[1] His 1991 Schemes of Satan quickly climbed the
best-seller list. Mike Warnke's press material includes credits for
appearances on "The 700 Club," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Larry
King Live," "Focus on the Family," and ABC's "20/20." Mike has won
numerous awards from the recording industry, including the 1992
Grady Nutt Humor Award. He continues to perform two hundred live
shows a year. He is truly a figure of national prominence.

   Mike Warnke's ministry and public profile are based upon the
story he tells of his previous involvement with Satanism. As
written in The Satan Seller, the story goes like this: a young
orphan boy raised in foster homes drifted from whatever family and
friends he had to join a secret, all-powerful satanic cult. First,
he descended into the hell of drug addiction. Then he ascended in
the satanic ranks to the position of high priest, with fifteen
hundred followers in three cities. He had unlimited wealth and
power at his disposal, provided by members of Satanism's highest
echelon, the Illuminati. And then he converted to Christ.






   A generation of Christians learned its basic concepts of
Satanism and the occult from Mike Warnke's testimony in The Satan
Seller. Based on his alleged satanic experiences, Warnke came to
be recognized as a prominent authority on the occult, even advising
law enforcement officers investigating occult crime. We believe
The Satan Seller has been responsible, more than any other single
volume in the Christian market, for promoting the current
nationwide "Satanism scare."[2]

   Through the years, Cornerstone has received many calls from
people who felt something was not right concerning Mike Warnke.
After our lengthy investigation into his background, we found
discrepancies that raise serious doubts about the trustworthiness
of his testimony. We have uncovered significant evidence
contradicting his alleged satanic activity. His testimony contains
major conflicts from book to book and tape to book, it contains
significant internal problems, and it doesn't square with known
external times and events. Further, we have documentation and
eyewitness testimony that contradict the claims he has made about
himself.

   The evidence we present here includes testimony from Mike's
closest friends, relatives, and daily associatespeople whose
names Mike disguised or omitted entirely in his "official"
testimony. These people knew the real Mike Warnke, who was not a
drug fiend or a recruiter for Satanism. But he was a storyteller.

   Michael Alfred Warnke was born November 19, 1946, to Alfred "Al"
Warnke and his wife, Louise. Mike's parents lived in Evansville,
Indiana, and according to their son's confirmation certificate, had
Mike baptized at St. Anthony's Catholic Church.[3]

   When Mike was five, the Warnkes moved to Manchester, Tennessee,
where Al opened Warnke's Truck Stop.[4] Located on Highway 41,
north of town, the diner soon became part of the local landscape.
On January 15, 1955, Louise, on her way home from town, lost
control of the family's brand-new Packard and was killed. She was
thirty-seven; Mike was eight years old.[5]

   Mike had other family, too, from his father's previous marriage.
His half sister, Shirley Schrader[6] was twenty-two years older
than he was. She first met Mike in 1954, when Al brought his family
to California on a visit. As Shirley recalls, "Dad, Louise, and
Michael came out to California in the mid-fifties. Prior to that,
I wasn't writing my father. I didn't even know where he was. My dad
had abandoned me when I was little. He was an alcoholic, and maybe
twice in my childhood did he make any effort to communicate with my
mother. So I was working and they came to my office, very
unexpectedly. He says, `I'm your father,' and he came on big and
strong, `Oh, my daughter, my daughter.' They spent maybe a week in
California, and then went back to Tennessee."



   When Mike's mother was killed, Al flew Shirley to Tennessee for
the funeral. During that visit, Al Warnke asked Shirley if she and
her husband, Keith, would move to Manchester and help run the truck
stop. "You always think, Wouldn't it be neat to know your own dad?
That was probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made."

   Shirley, Keith, and their six-year-old son Keith, Jr., came out
to Manchester in February of 1955. But Al and Shirley soon had
their problems. "He had me working days, with Thursday off, and he
had my husband working nights, with a different day off. Then there
was the fact that my father was a drunk. We weren't there but a few
days when he went off on a big binge and didn't show up again for
a week. There would have been enough money to support us all. But
he forgot we were supposed to be paid."

   Al Warnke seems to fit the description given him by his son in
his books and records. But what about Mike Warnke? Shirley recalls
Mike as a little boy who spent a lot of time "sitting two feet from
the television. I tried to tell my dad, `Hey, the boy can't see.'
And he'd say, `Don't try to tell me about my son!' And my dad would
give the kid ten bucks and send him uptown. That was a lot of money
for those days."

   Disgusted with Al and his truck stop, but feeling empathy for
Mike, the Schraders returned to California. Two years later, Al
Warnke was dead of heart failure.[7]

   Mike Warnke's story of his life, The Satan Seller, opens just
after Al's funeral, with adults discussing Mike's future as he
eavesdrops. As the book indicates, the eleven-year-old boy was
initially placed with his two aunts, Dorothy and Edna, who lived in
Sparta, Tennessee. Warnke has a segment on his Mike Warnke
Alive![8] album called "Tennessee Home and Blankety-Blank," in
which he describes how he raised one aunt's dander with his crude,
truck stop ways.

      The first night I was up there this lady came out and she   
said, "Well, honey, how do you think you're gonna like it    here?"
And I said, "Well, this is a pretty nice
   blank-blankety-blank place. We oughta get along pretty
   blank-blankety-blank well as long as you feed me
   blank-blankety properly."

   Aunt Edna Swindell[9] denies any such child appeared at her
Tennessee home. "He was just a typical boy. We had no problems."
What about his claims about being a foulmouthed brat? "He wasn't
that here." Meanwhile, Shirley Schrader was trying to get custody
of young Mike. "We wanted Michael," Shirley recalls. "And we
fought through the courts for Michael for months before they let
him come out here."

   Aunt Edna notes, "He stayed with me seven months. I guess if I
wanted him, I could have kept him the entire time. His half sister
in California wanted him, and that's where he wanted to go."
                  Mike Moves in with the Schraders

   During the summer of 1959, Mike went to live with his half
sister and her family near Riverside, California. Shirley confirms
Warnke's story of how his Aunt Edna sent him to California loaded
down with anti-Catholic materials.

   Shirley Schrader took the boys to churchthat is, she took her
eleven-year-old son Keith with her to Catholic mass and allowed
thirteen-year-old Mike to attend a nearby Protestant church. "And
that was fine for as long as he wanted to do it, because we weren't
going to force religion on him."

   In Riverside, Keith, Jr., attended a parochial schoolSt.
Francis deSales. Mike eventually decided he wanted to go to that
same parochial school. "He went for a year, until we moved up on
the mountain," says Shirley.

   In February of 1961, the Schraders and fourteen-year-old Mike
moved to Crestline, a small community planted among the pine trees
atop the San Bernardino Mountains overlooking the vast San
Bernardino Valley.

   The Schraders were well respected in Crestline. Community
pillars, they ran a tight ship at home. Keith, Sr., head of the
Pilot Rock Conservation Camp, was in charge of minimum security
inmates assigned to fight forest fires. "We took the boys on
camping trips. We rock hounded. We did things together," recalls
Shirley. "We sat them down and had the sex talk. We had the talk
about alcohol. We were a regular family."

   Keith, Jr., recalls, "Mike and I had a good time growing up
together. We were real close during high schoolwhen we weren't
fighting."[10]

   Mike Warnke attended Rim of the World High School. His best
friends through these years were Tim Smith[11] and Jeff
Nesmith.[12] "We'd spend lots of time at each other's houses," says
Jeff Nesmith, "go to school dances together, proms, and one summer
Mike and I worked for my dad in the construction business. We
weren't hellions, but we weren't angels either. We had our parties,
gate crashed some dances."

   All of Mike's friends and family we were able to contact denied
his assertion that he drifted at one point to a "rougher" crowd. In
fact, most of the kids Mike hung out with were, by all reports,
good, clean, Catholic boys. Tim Smith and another local boy, David
Goodwin,[13] were altar boys at St. Francis Cabrini Church. "Tim
and I went to morning mass every day before school," says Goodwin.
"Sometimes Mike Warnke attended mass with us." Tim's sister Terri
explains, "I believe Mike got interested in Catholicism from
hanging out with us. He was like a piece of furniture at our
house."[14]

   One day Mike announced to the Schraders that he, too, wanted to
become a Catholic. In the spring of his senior year in high school,
Warnke was confirmed in the Catholic Church. His sponsor was Tim's
dad, Paul "Jerry" Smith.[15] Two months after being confirmed, Mike
graduated with the rest of his class at Rim High in the class of
'65.

   Everybody we talked to who knew Mike Warnke at "Rim" remembers
him first and foremost as a chronic storyteller. His high school
partner in various escapades was Jeff Nesmith. Once, says Jeff,
Mike had a date but no car, and Jeff had his parents' Lincoln.
"Mike talked me into dropping him and his date off at a restaurant
and then picking them up after dinner. Before we picked up Mike's
date, we stopped at a local uniform store and got me a chauffeur's
cap. From the moment the girl got into the car, Mike spun this wild
tale about me being an orphan boy and how his family had taken me
in, and how I sometimes performed various services for them such as
being their chauffeur. She just soaked it all in."

   The thing that always struck Nesmith about his pal was that
Warnke would never break out of character. "We'd go into some
restaurant, and Mike would pretend to be a Russian immigrant who
couldn't speak English. I'd translate Mike's order into English for
the waitress. Sometimesjust to get himI'd order something I
knew he'd hate. But Mike was always enough of a pro that he'd stick
with it and wouldn't say anything . . . until we got outside the
restaurant and he'd yell at me."

   The Schraders also knew Mike as a boy with the gift of gab.
"Michael is a showman," says Shirley. "He is an actor, and he
always swore he would never make a living with his hands, that he
would make his living with his mouth." Keith, Jr., adds: "Mike is
the kind of guy that can sell somebody the Golden Gate Bridge. Or
swamp land in Florida. I gotta hand it to him. I wish I was as good
a salesman."

   In high school, storytelling had been a diversion, a way to get
by. According to his friends in college, it would increasingly
become a part of Mike Warnke's identity.

                       Mike Warnke at College

   Here begins the critical period described in The Satan Seller,
the defining moment of Mike Warnke's later testimony and
ministryhis involvement with and subsequent banishment from a
satanic cult.

   On September 13, 1965, Mike Warnke began school at San
Bernardino Valley College, a two-year school.[16] Mike writes in
The Satan Seller that it was after he started college that he
first was introduced to drugs, sex, and finally Satanism. And, he
continues, it was only after the Satanists threw him out of their
coven that he joined the navy. Warnke's military records say he
entered the navy on June 2, 1966.[17] Therefore, whatever happened
in Mike's life regarding Satanism had to have happened between
September 13, 1965, and June 2, 1966. (See sidebar "Under a Full
Moon," p. 9.)

   Mike, in his 1991 book, Schemes of Satan, claims to have had
no close friends at college and to have virtually disappeared:

      In my own case, being away from home at college and not   
having any close friends there meant that almost no one could   
have known what was happening to me except, of course, the   
members of the Satanic Brotherhood, and they were not
   telling![18]

   In reality, Mike Warnke simply did what countless other freshmen
have done: he found a new circle of friends. We found that new
circle, and they were not a part of the Satanic Brotherhood. None
of these people are mentioned by Warnke in The Satan Seller or
anywhere else.

   Greg Gilbert[19] was one of Mike's first and closest friends at
college. Today an English professor at a southern California
university, Greg reflects upon the notoriety of his old college
roommate. "After Mike became a star, I assumed that since he had
gotten this far with his Satan story, he'd always get away with it.
I never knew what to do. Who could you tell?"

   Right around the time college started in 1965, Greg met Mike
through a mutual friend, Dennis Pekus.[20] Greg was living with his
elderly grandparents in San Bernardino and took Warnke to meet
them. "When my grandparents said they were from Tennessee, Mike
said, `I come from Tennessee, too,' " Greg recalls. "Before the
evening was over he had us all convinced he was a long-lost
relative. Next thing we knew, he'd talked his way into living with
us."

   Greg's college girlfriend, Dawn Andrews,[21] gave us her
assessment. "The first time I saw Mike Warnke was at Greg's house.
He was introduced to me as Greg's cousin," says Dawn. "He told
everybody he was. I remember how upset I was when The Satan
Seller came out, because what Warnke said was a lie. He has a very
fertile imagination."

   Dyana Cridelich[22] was another of Mike Warnke's college friends
introduced by Greg. "After he got famous, I always wanted to write
him a letter and say, Mike, remember me? The one you gave the
silver cross to? When were you able to have this coven of fifteen
hundred people? Don't you remember, about the most exciting thing
we used to do was play croquet in Greg's backyard?' "

   In The Satan Seller, Mike never mentions croquet. He was too
busy becoming a teenage alcoholic.



      I attended classes regularly at first, but I wasn't about   
to cut down on my drinking. As the days went by, it became   
harder to concentrate on what the professors were saying, but    I
could still talk my way out of anything, and this carried me   
through. I was drinking so much by now, it was starting to    wreck
my stomach."[23]

   Was Mike a heavy drinker? Not according to those who knew him.
"We drank occasionally," says Greg, "but mostly we just talked
about it. We weren't of age, and alcohol was hard to come by."

   This group of college freshmen often sat on the lawn between
classes, or got together in the student union cafeteria, The
Tomahawk Room. It was there that Lois Eckenrod,[24] a girl who was
soon to be his fiancee, joins the story. "Mike and I met in
September or October, that first semester at Valley," Lois said.
"It was only a couple of months before we got engaged. Hardly a day
went by that we didn't see each other."

   His friends remember Mike Warnke as thin, with thick glasses and
short hair. He was bright, he was mainly happythough Lois
remembers he could swing easily to depression. Yet Mike says in
The Satan Seller that when college started, he was a "heavyset,
jovial guy" who only later lost weight due to drug use. His hair,
he writes, was already collar length. Within a short time, he
claims to have become a full-fledged hippie:

      I made a return trip to the Salvation Army and bought some  
 black pants and freaky shirts. My hair was longer than ever,   
and I bleached it blond. I was really craving attention, and I   
got it. You know, weird people attract chicks.[25]

   "He looked like everybody else," says Greg. He did have one
constant accessory, a silver cross. (This cross Warnke gave to
Dyana, she says.)

   Warnke writes in The Satan Seller that he frequented a
coffeehouse called Penny University, where he danced, obtained hard
liquor, and got acquainted with the owner while practicing his fake
English accent.[26]

   Lois says that she and Mike did go to Penny University, "quite
a bit because Mike really liked folk music. But there was no room
for dancing. The place was full of tables and stuff."

   Cornerstone also talked with John Ingro,[27] who in 1965 not
only owned Penny U., but also was a district attorney (currently he
is a San Bernardino judge). "You couldn't dance there. It was very
small, and packed with chairs. As far as alcohol, we only served
coffee at a penny a cup. That's where the place got its name." As
for remembering Mike and the fake English accent? "No. Is this a
joke?"


                  Storytelling in the Tomahawk Room

   Storytelling developed into an art form among the Tomahawk Room
crowd. One student, Gary Manbeck, is remembered as having some of
the best stories. "Gary always told stories about being in the
Green Beret," says Dawn. "He was very good, but I never thought any
of it was true."

   Mike Warnke joined right in. "Gary and Mike vied for attention
with stories, trying to be the life of the party," says George
Eubank,[28] another of the Tomahawk crowd. "Who can one-up ya.
That's a real good description of the two of them together."

   Warnke produced a never-ending stream of tall tales. "He claimed
he had some kind of white witchcraft background," recalls Greg
Gilbert. "He claimed he'd been reincarnated any number of times,
that he was born in the Irish Moors in the 1570s. Along with his
other stories, he claimed he'd once been a Trappist monk."

   In The Satan Seller, Warnke paints himself as a freshman guru,
dispensing wisdom to an eager audience of disciples:

      Most of my friends were the pseudo-intellectual type. We   
liked to lie out on the lawn in the quad after classes and   
discuss psychology, philosophy, religion, art, and politics.   
Other students began coming around, and they seemed to look to   
me for answers to their questions. Anything I said was okay    with
them. And it was certainly okay with me. If they were    that hung
up for a leader, I was happy to oblige." [29]

   Greg Gilbert remembers things this way: "We sat out under the
trees at school, all right. And there were times we listened to
Mike tell his tall tales. But if Mike thought we believed what he
was saying, or that we looked at him like some kind of guru, he was
greatly mistaken. We were all part of the same bragging team."

   It was difficult, at times, to know whether Warnke believed his
own stories or not. "I don't think it was in fun. I think he
himself wanted to believe it," says Phyliss Catalano,[30] Lois's
best friend. "I used to sit there and be embarrassed, because I'd
think, How could somebody that young have done all these things?
He'd done everything. And everything he told was with a straight
face."

   Phyliss's mother, Mary Catalano,[31] saw Warnke on a regular
basis when the gang gathered at the Catalano house. "He was a
likable young man when he visited our house," she says, "but
anything brought up in conversationhe'd done it. He said he'd
been a Greek dancer, and he'd dance for us, round and round. He
said he'd been a professional ambulance driver. And he was a
monkhe'd come to the house all dressed in black. Of course, we
never believed him. We just said, `Boy, is he one big liar.' "


   In college, as he'd done in high school, Warnke continued to
costume himself for his roles. Mike particularly liked being a
priest. "I remember at Halloween he dressed up like a priest and
went around pretending," says Dawn. "My parents saw himthey're
very Catholicso I heard about it." Another occasion for the
priest impersonation was a double date with Lois and Phyliss and
her boyfriend David Gibbet. "I'll never forget when he went dressed
as a priest to Jay's Coffeehouse," says Lois. "He met us there, and
came walking in wearing robes and a white collar. I about died."

   Yet another student, Tom Bolger,[32] recalls Warnke boasting how
he'd dressed as a priest and gone panhandling in downtown San
Bernardino. "He said he'd made fifty dollars." And finally, Greg
recalls Mike unsuccessfully using the priest bit to get drinks. "He
got the robes at a costume shop, went to Corky's Liquor Store, and
tried to get Christian Brothers wine for the mass. They just
laughed him out."

          "The Satan Seller" And the Way Things Really Were

   According to The Satan Seller, though, things are by now
getting serious. The story is set in motion by the mysterious
college-age individual named "Dean Armstrong," who Warnke alleges
was a satanic high priest. Mike says Dean lured him into drug use,
sexual promiscuity, witchcraft, and Satanism. We will examine these
elements of the story, then compare each with what witnesses
remember. For starters, Mike's associates at school affirm that
none among them remotely resembled the Dean character in The Satan
Seller.

   According to the book, Mike was encouraged by Dean to quit
drinking so much and start smoking marijuana. Mike tells Dean no,
but later an unnamed roommate brings up the subject again:

   My stomach was still hurting. I tried everything I could think 
  of, except giving up drinking. My new roommate suggested I try  
 . . . [grass], and not wanting to be left out, I finally went   
along with it. . . .
      . . . I really liked marijuana.[33]

   Regarding drug use, Greg laughs. "Drugs? No way, not at Valley,
and not in 1965. Two years later there was plenty of grass around,
but back in '65 we still believed Reefer Madness."

   Did Warnke ever talk about drugs around anybody else? "None of
us were into drugs," says Dyana. "We didn't even smoke cigarettes."
Yet in The Satan Seller, Warnke and his friends are allegedly
full-blown into drug use early in the year:

      When we tried the peyote, we decided it was better and   
heavier than pot. We also started eating mescaline in our food   
in increasing quantities, and from there we went on to reds. .   
. . . . .  Some doctors came to the campus to conduct
   controlled group experiments on [LSD]. My friends and I
   decided to volunteer for the tests.[34]

   Not only do Mike's friends deny controlled or uncontrolled
experimentation with drugs, but according to the records, no LSD
experiments took place on the campus of San Bernardino Valley
College. This was underscored in our conversation with Dr. George
Zaharopoulos, head of the Social Sciences Department at Valley. "I
taught here during those years, and we never, ever, asked for or
had any LSD experiments take place here. This is only a junior
college."

   In The Satan Seller Mike not only claims to have used drugs,
but to have been a major-league drug trafficker:

      One time I took some money for a drug payoff down to El   
Centro, a burg in the desert of California, not far from the   
border town of Mexicali. A really big load was involved, and   
this caused quite a flap. It was the most money I had ever    seen
at one timefifty thousand dollars in bundles of
   hundred-dollar bills.[35]

   On his Mike Warnke Alive! album, Mike further claims:

      I'd had hepatitis four times from shooting up with dirty   
needles. I had scabs all over my face from shooting up
   crystal. I was a speed freak. I weighed 110 pounds soaking   
wet. My skin had turned yellow. My hair was falling out. My   
teeth were rotting out of my head. I'd been pistol-whipped    five
or six times. My jaw had been broken. My nose had been    almost
ripped off. I had a bullet hole in my right leg. Two    bullet
holes in my left leg.

   Greg Gilbert and the others saw Mike on a daily basis, and say
that it is totally impossible for Mike to have had hepatitis,
facial scabs from injecting "crystal," and wounds from being shot
three times. "Without us knowing it? It's a lie," Greg says.

   Lois's reaction to Mike's tale? "That's just make-believe," she
states. "Mike never fell in with drugs. My dad was an alcoholic,
and because of our family situation, I'd had to move in with the
Catalanos. So I was really sensitive to things like that. Second,
I was training to be a nurse, and I think I would have known if he
was using drugs. I wouldn't have dated Mike if he was drugged. I
didn't even allow people to drink around me."

   In The Satan Seller, drugs and sex were the magnet that drew
Mike Warnke along. Warnke gradually found himself running errands
for Dean, attending occult discussion meetings, until, finally,
Dean decided his charge was ready for the real thing: a satanic
ritual service.




   The Black Mass in an orange grove turned out to be just what
anybody would expect who's seen Rosemary's Baby or other films of
this genre: black robes, a naked woman on the altar, blasphemy and
incantations. "After the Invocation of Satan, I listened intently
to the Offertory, where the members offered their souls to Lord
Satan."[36]

   According to The Satan Seller, Warnke signed his name in blood
to give his soul to Satan, and a few pages later took over the
coven from Dean as the new High Priest.

   I swung the now screaming cat over the smoking caldron and   
then over the heart of the girl on the altar. Then, when the   
sword point touched the cat's belly, I thrust it in.

      "Now!" I suddenly shouted. . . . I drew an upside-down star 
  on the girl's stomach, with the freshly spilled blood. From   
the weird utterances that now came from her mouth, I knew we   
were being graced by the presence of one of the denizens of   
hell.[37]

   Just before he published The Satan Seller in 1973, Warnke
brought manuscript copies to his old high school friends Jeff
Nesmith and Tim Smith, and asked them to sign affidavits swearing
the events depicted were true. Jeff Nesmith had lost track of
Warnke after high school and had little idea what he did during
college or who he hung out with. On a rare visit to Mike's
apartment during his college days, Mike asked Jeff to join a
"coven." But Jeff laughed it off, thinking it was one of Mike's
stories. In any event, when Warnke asked Jeff to sign the
affidavit, he refused.[38] "My initial reaction to the book was,
`Come on, Mike! This is poppycock!' "

   Tim Smith dropped out of college after only two months, but
notes, "I had contact with Mike off and on all the way through the
fall of 1965 until the summer of 1966." Tim states he never saw
Warnke with long hair or in the drug-induced emaciated state he
claimed to be during that period. "Sign the affidavit? I told him,
`Nope. Can't do that.' "

   Warnke's two high school buddies saw him sporadically throughout
the year, but not every day. Yet Mike brought Jeff and Tim the
affidavits, but not Lois, Greg, Dawn or the others. It does not
speak well for the veracity of Warnke's claims that he did not ask
those who knew him on a daily basis in San Bernardino Valley
College to endorse his story.








                  The College Crowd and the Occult

   Interestingly, most of Mike's college friends did dabble in
occult activities. "Some of them were into seance and Ouija board
type stuff," says George Eubank. "But it wasn't serious, just the
kind of stuff freshmen in college play with. Especially sheltered
freshmen in college that are all of a sudden free from their
parents, spreading their wings, so to speak."

   Bill Lott,[39] another college student who is now a Christian,
took the experimentation more seriously. "People were messing
around with stuff like reincarnation, tarot cards, Ouija boards.
Mike was one of those people. But he never talked about Satanism or
being a devil worshiper," Lott says.

   "People talked about witches and Ouija boards," says Dawn. "It
was that era. None of us belonged to a coven, and none of us were
witches. If we'd have thought anybody was serious, it would have
scared us to death. We did table tipping once, and the table tipped
and that was that. No more table tipping for me."

   Warnke and a few of the guys created a not-so-secret society.
"We started a club called The Royal Order of the Lantern," says
Greg. "We played chess, drank beer, and told tall tales. It was a
group that really never took off."

   Adds George Eubank, "The Royal Order of the Lantern had to do
with this lamp we'd stolen from somebody's driveway. Warnke wanted
to get an apartment and have a group of guys. I don't think it was
supposed to be secret. It was supposed to be fun and games. It
flopped because nobody was willing to put the effort into it. Mike
carried it as far as he could at the time. It was kind of a defunct
fraternity that never got anywhere." The Royal Order of the Lantern
is a far cry from The Satan Seller's fifteen hundred followers in
three cities, financed by a worldwide network of Satanists.

   Mike eventually did get his own apartment, and the place became
a favorite hangout for the Tomahawk Room crowdthe guys in
particular. Mike gave both Greg Gilbert and Bill Lott keys. The
apartment "was above a garage," says Greg. "There was an exterior
stairway that went up to a room with an open-beam ceiling, the
gable coming to a point."

   In The Satan Seller, Warnke describes the exterior of his
apartment in this way: a second-floor apartment approached by an
outside stairway. The interior, however, was redecorated by the
Satanists after Warnke became high priest:

      A long, low, oxblood leather couch replaced the sagging old 
  brown horsehair one, and there were two sets of bookshelves   
full of books [on the occult]. . . . The biggest surprise was on
the floortwo chicks sitting on a white rug . . . .


       . . . "We hope you like it, Mike, because we come with the 
  apartment," said the blonde one named Lorraine.[40]

   The two women allegedly remained at Warnke's beck and call,
rarely leaving the apartment unless it was to get groceries or
drugs. "It's a fantasy," says Dennis Pekus, who knew Mike in both
high school and college. Greg Gilbert says he never knew Mike
Warnke to have a girlfriend in college besides Lois Eckenrod. None
of the college friends who frequented the apartment ever saw occult
books, an oxblood leather couch, or two love slaves.

   Mike says plenty of "soft pink sex"[41] is at the center of his
satanic experiences. These begin with the orgies Warnke says
initially drew him into the coven:

   Then they split off into couples. It was great, because there  
 was a girl for every guy, not like most places I had been    where
there is a chronic chick shortage.

      Cool-looking, sexy girls, too. . . . These chicks were   
free-lovers. . . .

      "Come on over here, Mike," a blonde said.[42]

   Then there's the sexual recruiting Mike says he helped organize
and rituals that degenerate from cat killing to the rape of an
innocent virgin. (Warnke is careful to exclude himself from direct
participation in the rape, though he writes that it was his idea.)

   In a later book, Schemes of Satan, Warnke suggests that sex
was a routine part of the rituals:

   On more than one occasion, I regret to admit, we participated  
 in ritual sexual abuse that even involved rape. Most of the   
time I was too doped up to perform sexually, but I would watch   
these lust rituals with great desire.[43]

   Such tales of perversion and criminal activity raise serious
questions. If Mike led in acts of rape and other violent crimes,
why (after his conversion) didn't he turn himself in and aid the
police in apprehending his old satanic friends? If, on the other
hand, his rape and abuse stories are not true, what does this say
about the imagination of their author?

   Mike's college crowd completely rejects these stories of
violence and sexual perversion. "Oh, my goodness, no," says
Phyliss. "To talk about sex orgies and all these drug parties. He
didn't do them with Lois and me, that's for sure!"

   "I never slept with him," says Lois. "We kissed and hugged, but
I never would have had sex with him because I was a very devout
Catholic, and I wanted to be a virgin till I got married. Thank God
I didn't marry him."

   There always seemed to be a story. In college, as in the high
school role-playing with Jeff Nesmith, Warnke refused to drop out
of character. "He played it to the end," says Greg. "He never gave
up. That was the remarkable thing about him. We'd question him
about his stories and he always came up with some half-baked
answer. And you couldn't disprove what he was sayingthat was the
common thread. It was never anything we were likely to have the
real answer for or the time to check into. So he could say anything
he wanted."

   Warnke's refusal to admit to his own storytelling made him
untrustworthy in the eyes of some members of the group. "I didn't
know anything about his past, so I didn't know what was true and
what wasn't," says Dawn. "I didn't feel like he was sincere in
anything he did. If the situation required him to be macho, he was
macho. If it required him to be mean, he was mean. He just sort of
blended into the situation and tried to monopolize everyone. There
was nothing real about him."

                  Mike and Lois Plan Their Marriage

   By Christmas of 1965, Mike and Lois were seeing each other on a
daily basis. "It was pretty fast that we said we were going to get
married," says Lois. "Within two or three months of school
starting, he gave me a rose ring with a diamond in it. It cost $60.
He had to make payments on it. I thought he really loved me. And I
thought I loved him, too."

   In The Satan Seller, Warnke has gone through his drugs, sex,
and promotion to high priest before Christmas of 1965. (Trying to
fit the long list of his claims onto a real calendar is a
challenge. See sidebar, p. 18) Shirley Schrader says Mike had
Christmas dinner in Crestline with the family. "He didn't seem
emaciated by drugs to me," she says.

   College records show Mike Warnke left school after the first
term. "Most of us dropped out after the first semester," recalls
Lois. The group continued to hang out together at Mike's apartment,
the Catalanos', and elsewhere. What about the Mike in The Satan
Seller who flew around the country on satanic business trips to
San Francisco (where he allegedly met Anton LaVey), New York, and
Salem,
Massachusetts? "You're a real traveling salesman for Satan, Mike,
and we want you to go to Salem and get more hip with some really
serious organization."[44]

   "How could he fly when he didn't have two pennies?" asks Lois,
who adds that Mike never went anywhere, and when he did it was with
her. "If he says he was a Satanist between September of 1965 to
June of 1966, he's lying. How could I not know my boyfriend was
into Satanism? I don't remember there ever being a time when we
didn't see or talk to each other every day."


   Every day? "Yes," says Lois. "We went to movies together, I went
to the country club with him in the mountains, we went to the
beach. We used to go to Jay's Coffee Shop in San Bernardino. That
was the big thing. He introduced me to hot fudge sundaes. I spent
the majority of that year with him."

   Lois says she and Mike used to play pool over on Highland Avenue
in San Bernardino. We read her a story from Warnke's book
Hitchhiking on Hope Street. In it Mike writes that he got into a
gunfight with Ray, a local pimp, at the pool hall:

   I was drunk as a skunk when I shot at him with the .44,
   because I missed him by a country mile and blew off the corner 
   of the pool table. . . .  The two of us went roaring down the  
   street, screaming and shooting. . . .

   . . . he . . . got off a lucky shot. It hit me in the leg and  
   knocked me down.[45]

   The predictable reaction: "Oh, my goodness. You're kidding. . . 
   " Lois dissolves into laughter.

   According to The Satan Seller, Mike Warnke's reign as a
satanic high priest ends, apparently sometime in the spring of
1966, when Warnke crumples under the strain of too much
responsibility and too many drugs. On a "Focus on the Family" radio
broadcast, he described his appearance at this time: "I had white
hair. It was about down to my belt. . . . I had six-inch
fingernails; I painted them black."[46] (See picture, p. 8, taken
April 30, 1966.)

   Warnke says he was intentionally overdosed with heroin by one of
his live-in love slaves and thrown, naked, on the steps of a local
hospital. After a few weeks of drying out at the hospital, Warnke
escaped by joining the Navy.[47] On the Mike Warnke Alive! album,
he describes his hair length the night before boot camp: "It hit me
just below the pockets." He continues:

   The night before I went to boot camp I went to this
   party. . . . I smoked a bunch of dope and ate a bunch of reds  
 and got crashed out in a corner. . . . But the girl I was with   
decided the thing that would really be cute is if she braided    my
hair. . . . She put beads with the first bunch, feathers    with
the next bunch, a piece of red ribbon about that long    with the
last bunch, braided it all together, and hung a    jingle bell on
the end of each braid.

   Lois says she was the girl who gave Mike his going-away party.
When she heard this story for the first time in 1979, she was
furious. "I couldn't believe it when I heard that!" she says. "I'm
the one who gave him the going-away party! We never touched drugs.
He never had long hairhis hair was short, short, short!"


   Greg and Dawn, who had just gotten married, offered Lois the use
of their apartment for the party. "I bought a big cake decorated
with a navy boat," Lois remembers. "It said `Ship Ahoy, Mike.' Dawn
and I made food and pop, and we had a bunch of people over. It was
just clean fun. I took him to the bus stop, put him on the bus to
go to boot camp," Lois says. "We were supposed to get married when
he finished."

                    Mike, Sue, and Campus Crusade

   On June 2, 1966, Mike Warnke joined the U.S. Navy. During the
time he was there, he and Lois stayed in touch by letter. According
to Warnke's official story, boot camp is where he meets two
Christians who are such a bold witness for Christ that the ex-
Satanist converts to Christianity.

   According to his service records, Mike Warnke graduated from
boot camp August 22, 1966.[48] His fiancee, Lois, and the Schrader
family attended graduation. "I went down with a friend and gave
Mike a St. Christopher medal," says Lois. There was a fifteen-day
leave after camp ended. During this time Lois noticed a change in
Mike. "He was different. He was carrying a Bible. I asked him about
it, and he said he'd found Christ at boot camp. He was real excited
about being a Christian, finding God." Within days Mike told Lois
"he'd had this Christian conversion and he had to go on. That this
was it. I didn't see him anymore after that."

   The Satan Seller, once again, tells a different story. There
is, of course, no mention of Lois Eckenrod before or after boot
camp. Instead, when Warnke returns home from boot camp, he begins
dating Sue Studer, a fellow Rim High alumnus who was soon to become
his first wife. "I turned around and was surprised to see Sue
Studer, the girl who had always dated the football heroes. Sue was
still as pretty as ever."[49]

   Warnke writes that he then told Sue of his recent conversion to
Christ, and to his delight Sue replied she, too, had become a
Christian. "Sue had worked on the staff of Campus Crusade for
Christ at the Arrowhead Springs Headquarters."[50]

   In The Satan Seller, Mike Warnke says that he was chased by
Campus Crusaders attempting to convert him when he was the campus
Satanist. However, Lois and several others do remember Mike Warnke
taking some interest in religion and Campus Crusade before boot
camp. "I remember him starting to get interested in religion," Lois
says. "He'd go up the hill to Campus Crusade's headquarters."

   Just how early Mike dabbled with Christianity is unclear, but at
least one witness says she saw him proclaiming faith in Christ in
1965, a whole year before The Satan Seller says he became a
Christian. Charlotte Tweeten,[51] a 1964 Rim graduate who attended
Valley College, told Cornerstone, "It was in the fall of 1965. I
know that because by winter I had already left school. Mike Warnke
came up to me while I was sitting there drinking coffee and started
proselytizing me. It was the born-again thing. Mike was doing his
religious thing and Sue Studer was with him."

   On September 7, 1966, Mike Warnke reported to Hospital Corps
School in San Diego.[52]

   Mike gives us our choice of stories as to why he chose to become
a medic. In The Satan Seller he writes he joined the Hospital
Corps because "I could be of more use to God mending guys than
swabbing decks."[53] On the album Hey, Doc!, he says he joined
the Hospital Corps because of drugs and nurses: "Dope and women .
. . for pay . . . far out!"[54]

   In late 1966, Warnke graduated from medic school and, after
training with the marines at Camp Pendleton, went to work at the
naval dispensary in San Diego.[55] Marriage records show Mike and
Sue Studer were married May 13, 1967, in Crestline.[56] Soon after,
the couple moved onto San Diego's Louisiana Street.

   While in San Diego, the Warnkes visited Scott Memorial Baptist
Church, pastored by now well-known church leader and author Tim
LaHaye and his wife, Beverly. In The Satan Seller, Warnke offers
one version of what happened when the LaHayes visited the Warnke
home. Mike says he told Tim LaHaye about the Illuminati.

      I had already told him I had been to an occult conference.  
 "There were some weird guys that seemed to be the real backers   
of the whole thing. . . . I heard the word Illuminati."[57]

   "The conversation really wasn't like he put it in his book,"
says Dr. LaHaye.[58] "I brought up the term Illuminati first. I had
been reading a book on the subject, and I tried testing him to see
if he really knew anything about it. He didn't seem to have ever
heard the word before."

   "Mike gave us a little of his testimony," says Beverly
LaHaye,[59] who is now the head of Concerned Women for America. "He
said a book about the leaders of the Satan church had disappeared
off his shelf when he became interested in Christianity." Dr.
LaHaye sums up, "His type of personality tells stories for effect,
not for accuracy."

                           Mike in Vietnam

   In November of 1967, the Warnkes moved back to Camp Pendleton
and Oceanside. In May of 1969, Warnke was transferred from
Pendleton to the Third Marine Division, Vietnam.[60] Warnke says he
spent his time in Vietnam, like so many who served there,
anesthetized from the experience of war by drugs.[61]

   The following is a list of the other things Mike Warnke says
happened to him while in Vietnam:


      My faith was weakening fast![62] A buddy of mine was
   killeda mortar shell landed directly on him, disintegrating  
 him except for his shoes.[63] I was existing from one bottle    to
the next.[64] The message [a spy] was carrying was a
   detailed description of myself and the skipper, identifying us 
  as prime targets for the Viet Cong. . . .

      . . .  I shot a spy, went to my tent, cooked dinner, and   
ate. And something died inside of me.[65] I was the first to   
enter the tent [of marines who had been "fragged"killed by   
their own people]. [66]

         Anyway, one day we were into this fire fight. . . .   
Everybody is shooting at each other. . . .

         . . .  All of a sudden: zooooom, zonk, and my arm is   
pinned to the ground with an arrow! I look over at this other   
Marine Corps sergeant, who goes, "Only you, man, only
   you!"[67]

         One time I went through a village and was handing out   
candy bars to little kids. Just standing in the back of my    Jeep.
. . .

         When I get done, I'm putting the box back and this   
twelve-year-old kid goes in his house, comes back out with a   
gun, and shoots me.[68]

   Add to the list this story from Keith Schrader, Jr.:  "Mike told
me that he killed a man in a bar fight in the Philippines."

   Despite the impression such a long list may give, records show
Warnke was in Vietnam for only six months.

   In The Satan Seller Mike says that he was wounded twice. In
his second book, Hitchhiking on Hope Street, he says he was
wounded five times.[69] Military records obtained by Cornerstone
show that Mike Warnke, hospital corpsman, second class, service
number B98 05 49, received one Purple Heart, and, along with the
rest of his unit, several additional medals. The Third Marine
Division he was connected to was withdrawn from Vietnam in October
of 1969 and sent to Okinawa.[70]

   Warnke was sent back to the U.S. in the spring of 1970 and for
the first time was able to see his infant son, Brendon Michael,
born December 2, 1969, while Mike was overseas. In return for
reenlisting for six more years, Mike was enrolled in
cardiopulmonary school. The Warnke family settled in San Diego.






   George Wakeling,[71] who worked with young drug addicts, says he
was contacted by Mike around this time. George was the founder of
the Drug Prevention Center, or "the Hotline," a ministry to addicts
at the Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim. Mike started
spending time at the Hotline, and getting instruction from Hotline
speaker Dick Handley. It was through the Hotline that Mike made his
first contacts with Jesus Movement-era Christianity.

                    Mike Meets the Jesus Movement

   Melodyland was one of the Southern California centers of the
charismatic renewal movement then sweeping the Church. The ex-
addicts and others who ran the Hotline were among the original
Jesus People, part of a new youth counterculture uniquely
compatible with the charismatics. Both preferred informal
gatherings and a vital, experience-oriented faith. The culturally
conservative Melodyland crowd thus understood when the exuberant
young hippies suggested "getting high on Jesus."

   Both groups majored on the theme of acceptance. The mainstream
church was sadly out of touch with the needs of counterculture
youth and, even more sadly, unwilling by and large to reach out to
them. But Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God
seemed to grasp what God was doing among children of the sixties.
Uncritically, without attacking the cultural preferences of the
young, many charismatics and Pentecostals shamed their mainstream
peers by being (in Paul's words) all things to all men.

   But as with nearly all revivals, there were problems with the
newly revived. The mix of uncritical acceptance plus emphasis on
experience was easily taken too far. It opened the door for various
cults among the Jesus People; it also opened the door for those
with fascinating though unprovable conversion stories.

   "A lot of people came to the Hotline and told their drug
testimonies," says Ron Winckler,[72] a leader there. "Mike Warnke
came with the added attraction of the Satanist experience, which
was a big hit with the Full Gospel Businessmen and charismatics.
The times were right for that sort of testimony."

   Hotline speaker Dick Handley and friends in Crestline had
introduced Mike Warnke to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Through
Handley, Warnke met Dave Balsiger, a writer who had done promo work
for Melodyland and now was media director for charismatic
evangelist Morris Cerullo.

   After starting a youth ministry in San Diego, Cerullo had come
in contact with kids dabbling with the occult and decided to write
a book on the subject. Balsiger was assigned the job. It was during
this time he met Mike Warnke and enlisted his aid. The book was to
be called Witchcraft Never Looked Better.[73] They also created
a specially outfitted trailer, purchased to house "research
materials" such as voodoo oil, graveyard dust, and fortune-telling
spray. The vehicle, dubbed the "Witchmobile," was to be unveiled at
an upcoming Morris Cerullo convention, The Seventh Deeper Life
Conference.[74]

   Cerullo's vision, Warnke's story, and Balsiger's media talents
combined to make the January 1972 meeting a smash. A twelve-page
tabloid on Cerullo was inserted into the San Diego Evening
Tribune. Warnke and the Witchmobile were introduced to the media
at a press conference, and at the Saturday night youth rally.[75]

   Christianity Today covered the event, noting that Cerullo
"bore down heavily on the theme that satanic forces are loose in
the nation."[76] Mike Warnke, who gave a seminar on the occult, was
one of the newsmen's favorites.

   After the January 1972 conference, Warnke and Balsiger parted
with Cerullo and decided to write a book together about Mike's
Satanist experience. We asked Dave Balsiger about evidence for the
story told in the book. Was he concerned about that? "Oh, yes." And
what was the evidence Mike offered for The Satan Seller's
fifteen-hundred-member cult; the all-powerful Illuminati, the
intricate rituals complete with various knives, candles, books, and
robes? "Mike took me to some of the sites." (The reader should
recall that Mike's experiences had allegedly occurred six years
before the book was written.) "I saw where there had been a fire
started. And there were some indications of cultic writings and
graffiti."[77]

   During the first half of 1972, Warnke had been working hard
(with the help of Morris Cerullo's organization) to get out of the
navy so he could go full-time into the ministry. "I helped him
write letters," recalls Cerullo staffer Jean Jolly,[78] "and I got
hold of
[Congressman] Del Clawson's office. We got him out of the navy." On
June 2, Warnke was granted an early discharge on conscientious-
objector basis.[79]

   "As soon as he got out, Mike sent a letter to Morris Cerullo's
headquarters and said we were forbidden to use his name or his
material," recalls George Eckeroth,[80] who headed Jolly's
department. "And Balsiger left Cerullo around the same time."

   Mike launched his ministry under the banner "Alpha Omega
Outreach." In mid-June, Warnke went to Explo '72 in Dallas, a sort
of Campus Crusade version of Woodstock attended by over eighty
thousand.[81] Guideposts was running a feature on Warnke's
story,[82] and his book was due in the fall.[83]

                  "The Satan Seller" a Best-seller

   Logos International released The Satan Seller in early
1973.[84] At that moment, Christian publishing was in the midst of
an unparalleled boom with the success of blockbusters like The
Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and the Praise books by
Merlin Carothers. While the party lasted, Logos was the life of the
party, the industry leader in both output and income.[85]

   Yet, as a former Logos editor has admitted, the boom-time books
were often "too quickly written."[86] That same year, Logos
published Michael, Michael, Why Do You Hate Me?, the purported
story of born-again rabbi Michael Esses. A later expose revealed
Esses' bogus credentials and immorality.[87]

   Into this heady atmosphere The Satan Seller was born. The book
was positively reviewed in publications ranging from Moody
Monthly to The Christian Century, with nary a question as to its
credibility.[88] "The only thing I remember about that book is that
it sold better than we thought it would," says Logos founder Dan
Malachuk. Indeed, by April 1973, The Satan Seller was a religious
best-seller.[89]

   Other ex-Satanist testimonies followed Warnke's. John Todd's
warnings about the Illuminati and a conspiracy of witches were
promoted in a series of Jack Chick comic books. According to Ron
Winckler, Todd visited the Hotline once with a group of underlings
to check out Mike Warnke. "There was a backstage confrontation,"
says Ron Winckler."Todd accused Warnke of stealing his material
about the Illuminati."

   Another alleged ex-Satanist, Hershel Smith, purchased the
Witchmobile from Morris Cerullo and began his own tour. Smith's
testimony, seen in the 1974 book The Devil and Mr. Smith,
coauthored by Dave Hunt, was an apparent effort to one-up The
Satan Seller.[90]

   Hershel Smith eventually dropped out of sight. Todd's story was
later discredited. When a book debunking Todd was written, Mike
Warnke wrote the forward. "We as Christians have to be careful of
those who take the name of the Lord in vain," said Warnke. [91] In
Ron Winckler's analysis, "Mike Warnke had the jump on John Todd. He
understood the Full Gospel mind-set better."

   Now a published author, Mike Warnke found increasing demand for
his story and told it in coffeehouses and churches beyond the West
Coast.In August of 1973, Warnke spoke at a Christian music festival
in Pennsylvania. The Jesus Movement had spawned its own music, and
Warnke gravitated toward this fraternity of musicians. Tim Archer
of the group The Archers, told the crowd at Jesus '73, "Mike Warnke
is the Chaplain of Gospel Rock."[92]

   In his travels, Warnke had met Charles Duncombe, an elderly
Pentecostal evangelist. "Brother D," who started in the ministry
under English preacher Smith Wigglesworth, was loved and respected
by all who knew him. In 1974 Mike, Sue, four-year-old Brendon, and
newborn Jesse[93] all moved to Oklahoma near Duncombe's small
school, Trinity Bible College. Mike would attend school while Sue
tended children.


   Trinity Bible College was a nine-month preparation for ministry,
located in a big country house outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. The thirty
students were mostly new converts, many from a counterculture
background and eager to learn. "Within two weeks of our conversion
my wife and I were in Trinity," says John Witty,[94] who with his
wife Vicki Jo had been a nightclub comedian.

   Fellow students Bob and Karen Siegal[95] ran a Jesus People
ministry in southern Illinois and had met Brother D at a Full
Gospel Businessmen's meeting. "We were the token hippies at FGBM,"
says Karen. "They'd bring us in there and have us give our
testimonies." Student Bill Fisher, known as "Wild Bill," was a
colorful local who later became Mike Warnke's traveling partner and
confidant.

   In some ways Mike Warnke was the star pupil, since he was
already doing what everybody else was just learning to do:
ministering in churches around the country. "Here was a guy who was
going out on the weekends and leading hundreds to Jesus," says John
Witty. "He was a hero to us all."

   On local gigs, Trinity students would tag along, sometimes even
joining Warnke on stage. "Mike liked to introduce me as a former
hippie or drug addictwhich I'd been, but I wasn't proud of,"
Karen Siegal says. "Then he started introducing me as a former
prostitute, which I'd never been. I had to ask him to stop."

   Another new convert at Trinity, one with a sensational testimony
of her own, was to see her real-life story blended with Mike
Warnke's. "Part of the program at Trinity was tell your testimony,"
she says. "I got up and said, `My name's Carolyn Alberty and I'm
third-generation Mafia. My father ran gambling houses, and my
mother ran brothels. We had connections in political circles and
the entertainment
business.'"[96]

   This story caught Warnke's interest, says Carolyn. "Mike told me
he knew me from some parties I had given in California." He
convinced her he'd been to some, though she didn't remember him.
"Then he started inquiring about my connections and ability to
promote."

   Carolyn rattled off a list of things Warnke needed to do to
further his ministry. "Mike brought me to his home, introduced me
to Sue, and said, `I really think Carolyn can help us.' " Carolyn
assembled his first real promotional package and called churches to
make connections for speaking engagements. She says she told Mike,
"Ease up on the satanic stuff and concentrate on the funny stories
you've started to tell."[97]

   It didn't take long for the relationship to move beyond a
professional level. "Mike started telling me he and Sue had
different ideas about what they wanted out of life, and that he
didn't love her anymore," says Carolyn. "Mike began passing notes
to me in class, with stuff like `Hubba, hubba' written on them."

   As the year wore on, Karen Siegal realized something was up.
"Carolyn and Mike started getting really hot and heavy," says
Karen. "I confronted them and said, `This is not godly.' They
basically told me it was none of my business." Karen took her
concerns to fellow students, but they suggested she was being
judgmental.

   Brother D was taken by Warnke's sincerity, says Karen. John
Witty adds that the rest of the class was too naive to realize what
was happening. "Back then, Mike and Carolyn seemed to be just what
Jesus freaks would call `brothers and sisters in the Lord.' I now
realize the relationship had warning signs all over it from the
beginning."

   Karen Siegal protested one last time. "I'd repeatedly told Mike
he needed to clean up his act with Carolyn," she says. "One time he
came over to our house when nobody else was home. I made the
mistake of confronting him again. All of a sudden, he said, `It's
not Carolyn or Susie I love. It's you.' He grabbed me. It freaked
me out and I pushed him away. I yelled, `Get out of here! I love my
husband!' "

   Carolyn Alberty admits her relationship with Warnke took the
inevitable turn near the end of the school year. "We'd been
assigned to paraphrase the book of Isaiah. Mike rented a cabin
outside Tulsa to do his work, and he offered to help me with my
homework there. I thought that sounded reasonable, since I was
living with the Siegals and had no privacy."

   After they'd worked at the cabin for awhile, Carolyn says, the
two went for a drive, and Warnke stopped at a convenience store.
"He asked what kind of cigarettes I used to smoke, and I said,
`Pall Mall Gold. Why?' He just shut the door and kept on walking.
I went, `Uh-oh.' " Warnke returned to the car, says Carolyn, with
"two bottles of Annie Greensprings wine, two packs of cigarettes,
and a package of peanut butter cookies." That day they began an
affair that would lead to marriage two years later and divorce two
years after that. "I guess from day one I was wrong," says Carolyn.

   Meanwhile, recalls John Witty, "Mike's testimony was just
starting to break nationally. He was beginning to get calls from
big churches."

   Among the churches calling Warnke during this time was the
Golden Heights Christian Center in Brockport, New York.[98] Pastor
Don Riling tried his best to disciple the young Christian musicians
and speakers who came to his church. "I loved Mike Warnke as a
son," he says. But soon problems cropped up. "We had a woman in the
church who'd just become a Christian. She began to hang out with
Mike Warnkehe seemed to have an eye for people with weaknesses,"
Riling says. "Later, she confessed to me she'd met him a number of
times in hotels for sex when he was in the area."
                    The Syro-Chaldean Connection

   During the Trinity '74-'75 school year began one of the
strangest, and longest-running, chapters of the Mike Warnke story.
Elijah Coady, an independent bishop in an Eastern Orthodox splinter
group called the Syro-Chaldean Church, ordained Warnke a
deacon.[99]

   Warnke had met Coady on the road, and expressed interest in the
bishop's brand of independent Eastern Orthodoxy. Several Trinity
students remember Bishop Coady's visit to Tulsa. A few were present
when Coady ordained Warnke at a local church. "The bishop wore a
strange hat, like a stack of pancakes," says Bill Fisher, who adds
that Charles Duncombe expressed some concerns about Coady. "Brother
D told us to be cool. He'd gotten a real check in the spirit about
the guy."

   Another ordination was bestowed upon Warnke by Brother Duncombe
on his graduation from Trinity in the spring of 1975. After
graduation, Carolyn says Warnke made promises to her but would not
be rushed. "He told me he was going to divorce Sue, that I should
wait and be patient, that he needed to set up his escape."

   Soon afterwards, Warnke did a show at The Happy Church in
Denver,[100] where he met Pastor Wally Hickey and his wife Marilyn.
Mike and Sue Warnke decided to move to Denver with their two
children, and Mike invited Bill Fisher and Carolyn to join him
there. The entourage arrived in Denver in August of 1975, where
Mike and Sue settled.[101]  Mike had promised Fisher and Carolyn
jobs with Happy Church, but the jobs didn't materialize. Mike
leased a 270-acre mountain retreat called Joy Ranch in Evergreen,
Colorado. "Mike would go catch the plane in Denver, and I would
keep the place together up there," notes Bill Fisher.[102]

    The relationship between Warnke and Happy Church is unclear.
Bill Fisher says Mike was "a kind of evangelist for them," not on
the payroll but working under Marilyn's Life for Laymen
organization. An article in the Denver Post in October '75
identifies Warnke as "an evangelist with Life for Laymen, a Denver-
based movement."[103] The Hickeys refused to talk with us, but
their spokesperson said Warnke and his wife attended the church
during the seventies, primarily for counseling.

   According to Carolyn, Warnke now began to push for a divorce
from Sue. The Hickeys tried to reason with him. "Mike told them he
and Sue would try to work it out," says Carolyn. "But he told me he
wanted out of the marriage." Not long after, the relationship was
broken between Mike Warnke and The Happy Church.

   In November 1975, Mike was invited to do a show at the Adam's
Apple coffeehouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[104] Christian artists
Nancy Honeytree and Phil Keaggy were recording a concert that
night. The tape kept rolling during Warnke's part of the show. A
proposed
Keaggy/Honeytree live album didn't materialize, but the Warnke tape
found a buyer in Myrrh Records, a subsidiary of Word, Inc.[105]

   Another Christian artist Mike had done concerts with on the road
was Randy Matthews. Randy, along with Wes Yoder, was co-owner of
Dharma Artists Agency, a fledgling Christian management company
based in Matthews' garage in Nashville. After talking with
Matthews, Warnke and Carolyn flew to Nashville, where he signed
with the company.[106] "While Wes was signing Mike, he asked me to
work with Dharma," says Carolyn. "Wes said he'd split my bookings
down the middle, fifty-fifty. Mike said, `I can't beat that. He may
get half of me, but I get half of it back.' So I became a working
member of the team."

   During this time Brockport, NY, pastor Don Riling[107] continued
to befriend Warnke. He was growing more and more concerned over
what was going on in Mike and Sue's marriage. "On several occasions
Mike had told me and my wifecrying and the whole bit`Sue
doesn't love me. She's kicked me out,' " Riling says. "Mike kept
saying how all he wanted to be was a family man, to raise his two
boys. I told him he'd have to choose between the road and his
family." According to pastor Riling, Marilyn Hickey then visited
the Rilings. "I asked Marilyn, `Isn't there anything we can do to
persuade Sue to go back to Mike?' Marilyn about fell out of her
chair. She said, `What are you talking about? Sue loves Mike. She
wants to save their marriage. Mike is the one who wants to end it.'
Then it was my turn to be surprised. All I'd known about the
marriage problems before this was that Mike said Sue was cheating
on him."[108]

   Riling flew to Denver in the late summer of 1976 on a desperate
mission to try to save the marriage. On arriving, Riling said he
found Mike had left Sue and the two children and had moved into an
apartment with Carolyn. So Riling met with Sue. "She wanted to get
back together with Mike. Sue said at one time she had dated another
man, but she was plugged into Hickey's church and her attitude was
`I just want to be with my husband.' I think Mike saw it as his
chance to dump Sue." (Carolyn told us that Mike had urged both Sue
and herself to go out with others when he was away on the road.
Finally, Carolyn says, Sue did go out once with her to a dance
hall.)

   After talking with Sue, Pastor Riling stayed with the Hickeys
but spent most of his time with Mike and Carolyn. Riling got his
information about Carolyn from Warnke: "Mike was out on the road,
and he had supposedly led this gal Carolyn to Jesus. Before then,
she had run these houses of ill repute. Mike told me he had to
bring her home to help rehab her, and she lived right there with
Sue."

   During the visit, Riling didn't let up. "Every opportunity I
could, I pleaded with Mike to go back to Suefor the sake of his
marriage, for the sake of his ministry. Mike wouldn't hear anything
about leaving Carolyn." Riling was in a restaurant with Warnke when
Mike told him Sue was being served with divorce papers that very
moment. (The summons is dated August 20, 1976.)[109] His mission a
failure, the pastor returned to New York.

   Upon receiving the divorce petition, Sue Warnke called Ron
Winckler and George Wakeling, along with others, and asked for
prayer, saying Mike had run off with another woman.

   It was at this point that Dr. Walter Martin, a well-known
counter-cult apologist and founder of Christian Research Institute
(CRI), was asked to speak to Mike about his marriage difficulties.
(Dr. Martin died in 1989.) Gretchen Passantino was Martin's senior
research consultant at the time, in charge of CRI's research staff,
[110] and her duties included overseeing Walter Martin's travel
arrangements.

   "Dr. Martin had a speaking engagement near Denver and asked me
to book a couple extra days so he could speak with Mike Warnke and
his wife, Sue," says Gretchen. "When he got back, he took me aside.
He said, `I had this real difficult meeting with Mike and Sue
Warnke. I hope what I did was enough.' Realizing that Mike was
determined to leave the marriage, Dr. Martin had prayed and
counseled with both of them, advising Mike he needed to leave the
ministry."

                    Mike & Carolyn in Music City

   Harmony magazine was the Christian music magazine in the
mid-seventies, and in September 1976, Mike Warnke was on the
cover.[111] During this era, Mike relocated to what was becoming
the center of the contemporary Christian music business. Jesus
music began to be shaped by the powerful influence of Nashville,
country music capital and home of the Gospel Music Association
(GMA). The "music" part was welcomed in Music City. As for Jesus,
insiders there have a saying: "Nashville has changed more
Christians than Christians have changed Nashville."[112]

   Mike and Carolyn pulled into town with a U-Haul trailer. "Mike
and I moved into an apartment together," says Carolyn. "Once we'd
moved in, Mike went and bought cases of whiskey, different wines,
and beer." At the time, of course, Warnke was still married to Sue.
Among their Nashville Christian music friends, the only ones to
protest Mike and Carolyn's living arrangements was a couple they
had met on the road, Mike and Karen Johnson.[113]

   Though many of our readers may be unacquainted with Mike
Johnson, he was a Jesus music pioneer, starting his first Christian
band in 1968. According to many Jesus music historians, Johnson
never received recognition equal to the dues he paid and miles he
and Karen logged on the coffeehouse and church basement circuit.

   When Mike Warnke came to town with Carolyn, Karen Johnson wanted
to know what was going on. "We said, `Hey, what about Sue?' Mike
told us, `She's running around on me.' I called Sue, and she said
that wasn't true. She said Mike found this other woman and he
wanted to marry her. And the only way you could get a divorce in
the Christian community was to say somebody had been unfaithful."

   Out of their concern, the Johnsons orchestrated another meeting
with mutual acquaintance Don Riling. "We thought Mike Warnke was a
mess and wanted him to get help," says Karen. "Don Riling was the
only pastor that Warnke opened up to and submitted to in any form.
He was like a father figure to Mike." Mike Johnson told the Rilings
that Warnke had asked him to be best man in his wedding with
Carolyn. "We pushed for a meeting," says Karen Johnson. "Wes set it
up. Don Riling flew to Nashville."

   The meeting was held at the Dharma offices. Riling, Mike
Johnson, Wes Yoder, and Mike and Carolyn were there. "You'd have
never guessed that this was a meeting of Christians," says Riling.
"Mike and Carolyn were swearing the whole time, and they must have
gone through a whole pack of cigarettes." The meeting went on for
hours in an effort to get everything out on the table with Warnke.
"He moped around, saying his life was a mess," says Riling. "I
tried to convince him to go back to Sue and save his ministry."

   At one point in the meeting, Carolyn brought up Warnke's
continuing affair with the woman at Riling's church in Brockport.
"Mike was still very involved with her," says Carolyn. Pastor
Riling was struck by the bizarreness of the situation: "I'm sitting
there listening to this woman Warnke was committing adultery with
talk about how Mike was cheating on her."

   As the meeting bogged down, Riling took Wes Yoder aside and
tried to make him understand the gravity of the situation. "Wes
wouldn't deal with it," says Riling. "He knew Mike Warnke had a
problem, but Wes was young and inexperienced. Wes said to Mike, `Do
whatever you want to. Stay with this woman. Go back to your wife.
It's okay. I'm behind you, because we have to keep the ministry
going.' Mike Johnson was horrified by this," says Riling.

   Carolyn says she also gave Wes advice: "I thought Mike Johnson
was being sanctimonious and Don Riling was a joke. Wes came to me
and said, `What's going on?' I said, `Look, the guy's a joke. He's
trying to get his paws on Mike, but you've got him signed and if
you don't keep him it's your fault.' So it was really us against
them."

   Wes Yoder says of those days, "I should have run Warnke out of
town when he first showed up with Carolyn. I was stupid. I didn't
miss it. I just didn't know what to do about it. I was sinful in
allowing him to use me as a cloak of decency for what he was doing.
The Lord doesn't bless in things like that."[114] Karen Johnson
forgives Wes for his part in the debacle, saying, "Here he was,
this young guy trying to be a part of Christian music, and he's
involved with all these crazy people."


   Carolyn says the meeting accomplished nothing. "Nobody I ever
met who was around or who was connected with Mike Warnke in any way
ever had any effect on him." The day after the meeting, Mike
Johnson left Dharma. His path then began to lead downward by
degrees. It was also after this meeting, says Carolyn, that Mike
Warnke initiated her in what he called an Indian ceremony. "We were
at a motel, and he said, `I'll show you how much I love you.' He
took a pocket knife and cut his wrist, and cut mine, and mixed our
blood. He said, `Now we are one.' He gave himself the name Many
Horsesbecause I was part American Indian."

   Bill Fisher said, "Mike told me he got the name Many Horses from
an Indian medicine man." Bill Fisher told us, explaining the Indian
identity as one of Warnke's many "mojos": "Mike would personify
himself as various characters at times. Mike had his Indian mojo,
or sometimes he'd be a Scotsman, or Jewish, or a Catholic priest,
or Jeremiah Johnson, or blackhe wanted to think he had black
blood because Andre Crouch told him he had soul."

   The divorce of Mike Warnke from Sue was finalized on December 3,
1976.[115] Mike and Carolyn were married four months later.[116]
Instead of Mike Johnson, Wes Yoder was best man.

                      Downhill into the Bigtime

   In his books and on his records, Mike Warnke goes from Satan to
Christ. In Nashville, the path led from rags to riches. Warnke had
no money or credit when he came to town, says Carolyn. The bang-up
combination of a hit record and the Dharma Agency soon changed
that.[117] And the money started rolling in. "Lots of money," says
Carolyn. "Not all of a sudden. But it wasn't uncommon for us to
make five thousand dollars on the road, spend two to three thousand
a day, buy whatever we wanted, go where we wanted, do whatever we
wanted."

   The Dharma Agency prospered. During this period, they moved
their offices from Randy Matthews' garage to Music Row, and later
to a penthouse suite in the United Artists Towers. They hired
additional booking agents.[118] Dharma's star rose with the
fortunes of something that was now called contemporary Christian
music.

   Writes Christian media observer William D. Romanowski, "The
industry scaffolding began to go up as concert halls replaced
coffeehouses and church fellowship halls, as record labels replaced
custom recordings, and as contemporary music radio formats replaced
tapes of
preachers. . . .

   Christian entrepreneurs were building a Christian entertainment
industry that paralleled its secular counterpart not just in
musical styles and trends, but in marketing techniques, management,
concert production, publicity, and glamorization."[119]

   The whole atmosphere surrounding the music changed. "We took our
eyes off what had been very precious and innocent," says industry
veteran, Dan Hickling, "the joy of being a Christian and going
around and singing music for people that would bring them closer to
God."[120]

  Buddy Huey, Word Records' artists and repertoire man, who had
signed Warnke, was part of the big change.[121] "What we were
trying to do was have better distribution to get the Word out. We
ended up compromising lots. When I was with Word, the intent of the
company was nothing more than trying to find those people who had
a voice or a platform. And then all we could go on was what they
told us." Including Warnke's satanic story? "It was just accepted,"
says Huey. "That's one of the things you'll find in the industry.
You see something that might be salable, marketablethat's what
you look at. It saddens me that I was a part of setting up things
in the industry that I wish I had a chance to undo."

   Romanowski writes, "Evangelism was the rhetoric, business became
reality." The manipulation of language, he says, transformed
"money-making into ministry, easing the consciences of those few
who earn healthy incomes off the music."[122]

   "You could see a kind of downhill slide," says Larry Black, a
one-time Christian deejay who is now an actor.[123] "To see the
marriages dissolve, to see them slowly begin to justify various
vices." Was this behavior common knowledge in the industry? "Yeah.
I think there was general knowledge. But you're caught in that old
trap of not wanting to criticize a brother."

   We asked Buddy Huey if there was any company policy regarding
Christian artists who were exhibiting non-Christian behavior. "No,
there really wasn't," says Buddy Huey. "I didn't personally do
cocaine, for instance, but I was present when others did cocaine.
Looking back at that, I think my silence was worse than them doing
the drugs."

   Scott Ross, who now works for CBN Television and back then was
the country's foremost Christian disk jockey, recalls how kinky
things had gotten. "There was a lot of immorality, drugs, and
booze."

   Says Karen Johnson, "Mike [Johnson] tried to stay so straight,
for eight years. Then everything fell apart after we'd been in
Nashville for awhile. Mike looked around and realized that Warnke
and his friends were making lots of money and fooling around on
their wives. My husband thought, `What difference does it make?' He
started drinking, smoking grass. He started hanging around with
these Christian music people that didn't care if you were moral or
not."




   Says Mike Johnson, "I was one big mess." Adds Karen, "When my
Mike came home from being on the road with Warnke, he'd
confessall in the name of repentanceto all this drinking and
going to discos.

   In the fall of 1978, the future seemed bright for Mike Warnke.
His albums were "the most popular Christian comedy records ever
produced anywhere, with sales reaching to nearly 200,000."[124]
Doubleday Publishing was assembling a book of material from the
first three albums. With dates around the world, 1979 was slated to
be his biggest tour ever. Mike asked Bill Fisher to travel with
him.

   At home, Carolyn says she and Mike had been fighting, and that
several times he had hit her. Because of this, Carolyn's mother,
Peggy Alberty, had moved to Nashville to be near her daughter.

                     Enter Rose, Exit Nashville

   Warnke was on the road almost constantly. "We figured it out one
time," says Bill Fisher. "We traveled over 280,000 air miles in
about ten months that year, with three days off a month." About
halfway through the whirlwind ten-month tour, Warnke performed in
Hazard, Kentucky.[125] It was there, says Rose Hall, that she first
met Mike Warnke.[126]

   Carolyn confirms this story. "While Mike and I were still
married, he went to Kentucky to do a show, and that's where he met
Rose." Carolyn says Mike came home very excited about something.
"Then he went down to a jewelry store where we'd established credit
and began buying jewelry for someone else, who I later found out
was Rose."

   The story of Mike Warnke's romance with Rose Hall is told in her
book, The Great Pretender. Rose never mentions Carolyn or the
fact that Mike was married to Carolyn during his courtship with
Rose. She says she met Warnke in various cities and stayed in the
hotel with himin separate rooms. "Looking back, it had never
occurred to me to say, `You're a minister, an evangelist; are you
married?' It never entered my mind."[127]

   During the time she was traveling around with Warnke, Rose says
she went with him to Nashville. There, she writes, both his road
manager and his agent objected to the relationship.[128] Wes Yoder
says, "Rose came along before Mike and Carolyn were divorced. The
whole thing with Carolyn, I couldn't deal with personally. With
Rose I did. But I was still there. I was so wrong."

   Mike Warnke's relationship with the Johnsons went from bad to
worse. As Karen Johnson tells it, "Mike called on the phone and
said he wanted to come over, because he knew I was angry at him
over what had happened to my Mike. I told him no, that I felt he
was leading people astray, and I didn't want him associating with
my husband because he was helping destroy our marriage. But later
Warnke came over anyway and said, `Karen, I don't want you to
dislike me. I want us to be friends.' I said, `Then change what
you're doing. You're deceiving people. You're committing adultery.'
He said, `I can't change.' "

   After Karen told Warnke to get out, "He came at me like he was
going to kill me." Mike Johnson says of this episode, "I was in
pretty good shape back then, and I was ready to go at it there in
the living room." Warnke left, says Karen, "screaming obscenities
at me."

   The end for Mike Warnke and wife Carolyn was, as she tells it,
the stuff of melodrama. "We were fighting and he threw me into a
wall and split my head open. He said, `If you go to a local
hospital and tell them what your name is, I'll kill you. I don't
have to do it physically. I can do it from another room or another
state.' "

   "There was a revolver in the nightstand," Carolyn says. "I took
it out and said, `If you hit me again Mike, I'm gonna kill you,
because I'm tired of your beatings. I just can't take any more.' "
Carolyn says she jumped into her car, started driving, and didn't
stop until she reached Pensacola, Florida.

   Tom Carrouthers found Carolyn in a convenience store in
Pensacola that summer night in 1979, dazed and bleeding. "Carolyn
said she and her old man had gotten into it," says
Carrouthers.[129] "She had a big gouge on the top of her head, and
a wad of dried blood. I took her to the hospital. When we got
there, she was like a kid and didn't want me to leave. She stayed
with my sister and me for a week or so."

   Carolyn gave us a note she received from Mike. "Dear Carolyn,"
it reads, "I don't know how we ever got to this place. All I know
for sure is that we are here. . . . I can't blame you for not
wanting to be around me right now. Nor can I condemn your disgust
at my rages and tantrums. I'm trying hard to get control. . . .
I'll always be there when you need me. The scar on my wrist will
never fade. . . . Peace to you. Many Horses."

    Carrouthers remembers Carolyn talking with Warnke on the phone
during the two weeks she was there; things seemed to be improving.
But when Carolyn finally returned to Nashville from Florida, she
was in for a surprise. "I came home and there was a `For Sale' sign
on the house. All the locks had been changed, and everything in the
house was gone. In just a matter of days, I had no funds, no
furniture, nothing," she says.

   Carolyn didn't go back to Dharma. She felt most of the people
she knew in the industry had been siding with Mike, who was telling
everyone the stories about her unfaithfulness. In a bizarre twist,
Carolyn got a job working as an undercover narcotics operative with
the Regional Organized Crime Information Center, a law enforcement
organization in Nashville.
   Mike and Carolyn's divorce was final on November 29, 1979.[130]
Mike Johnson says Warnke told him that Carolyn was rubbed out by
the mob, "bludgeoned to death in a ditch." A friend from the
Trinity days, Clarence Benes, heard from Warnke that Carolyn had
been killed in a boating accident.[131] Don Riling says he was told
by Warnke that Carolyn had drowned.

   From Carolyn's viewpoint, "Mike is one of the greatest con
artists I've ever known in my life. And coming from my background,
that says quite a bit."

   Mike and Karen Johnson divorced two years later, and he is no
longer in Christian music. "Mike Johnson has really reaped what he
has sown," says ex-wife Karen. "He has no family, no friends, no
career, no money, no life. It makes me angry that Mike Warnke, on
the other hand, seems to be making money, going on with life, and
continuing to deceive people."

   Among the friends that took a different path than Warnke at the
end of 1979 was Bill Fisher. "Mike and I parted when he moved to
Kentucky to be with Rose," says Bill. "He was divorced, but that's
not grounds for moving in with someone. Mike said, `We married each
other before the Lord.' I said, `Do it before the state, too.' "

              Holy Orthodox Catholic Church in Kentucky

   Mike Warnke married Rose Hall in Paintsville, Kentucky, on
January 2, 1980.[132] It was his third marriage, her fourth. With
the marriage came several changes: Rose was often onstage and on
record with Mike;[133] Warnke left Dharma Agency and began to book
his own concerts; the public focus shifted from onstage concerts to
the ministry back home.[134] As Mike has said: "When you get right
down to it, I'm just a glorified cheerleader. The real work of our
ministry goes on back there."[135]

   The name of the "ministry back there" was Warnke Ministries; its
nonprofit status was listed under "The Holy Orthodox Catholic
Church in Kentucky" (HOCCK). This built on Warnke's previous 1974
ordination in Tulsa by Bishop Elijah Coady while Warnke was
attending Trinity Bible School. With HOCCK, Mike Warnke joined the
ranks of "independent" Eastern Orthodox churchmen who founded their
own autonomous denominations. During the early eighties, Warnke met
James Miller, a local bishop in the American Orthodox Church.
Miller told us he ordained Warnke a deacon and then a priest in
early 1983. He suspended the ordination later when Warnke failed to
submit regular reports.

   And then Mike Warnke became a bishop. This final ecclesiastical
step occurred when another independent bishop, Richard Morrill,
consecrated Warnkean event we have verified by speaking to three
other bishops who say they were told by the late Morrill that he
had indeed made Mike Warnke a bishop.[136]


   Bishop Richard Morrill had officiated over Mike and Carolyn's
marriage in Nashville.[137] According to Elijah Coady, Morrill was
an itinerant cleric given to flamboyance and the founding of
organizations, many of which seemed to exist only on paper. In
1981, Morrill incorporated in Texas under the name "The Holy
Orthodox Catholic Church, Eastern and Apostolic."[138] One year
later, Mike and Rose incorporated as "The Holy Orthodox Catholic
Church in
Kentucky."[139]

   HOCCK's offices were located at first in a converted garage
behind the Warnkes' Versailles home.[140] As time went on, they
staffed it with a series of Christian women whose opinions of the
Warnke ministry were much higher when they joined than when they
left. In the summer of 1983, Dorothy Green heard Rose on a
Lexington Christian radio station and invited her to speak to the
Danville, Kentucky, Women's Aglow.[141] Soon afterwards, "Dot" was
hired to answer letters and do phone counseling. Dot's friend, Jan
Ross, joined later as Rose's personal secretary. Roxanne Miller and
Phyllis Swearinger eventually worked in the bookkeeping department.

   All four women were nonplussed by Mike's preference for High
Church "chapel" services. Dot remembers an early chapel service
with Mike: "He had incense, and he'd come down the aisle with his
robes, swinging it in this thing."

   Roxanne Miller's opinion had less to do with the High Church
trappings than with an event where Mike's ritual got in the way of
a few friends' prayer time. "We used to go down to the park for
lunch," Roxanne recalls.[142] "Dot, Jan, myself, a few others . .
. and we'd just talk about what God had done in our lives. What He
still was doing. Mike was usually out of town, but one day he just
showed up and said, `I'm gonna do the teaching this week.' So we
sang, and then Mike put on his robes. I thought he was plain
ridiculous. It was like dressing up to be something you're not. It
made me feel sad. He wants to be so much, and he isn't. I can still
see him standing there in his robe, all velvet and dark."

                     The Ministry and the Money

   Another point which perplexed the women was HOCCK's finances.
Roxanne Miller had been hired to get control of the finances and
says that while she was there (1985-1986) HOCCK covered various
expenses for Mike and Rose. "We paid for the car, we paid for the
gas, we paid for the parsonage, we paid for their clothes and their
food," she says. Yet she says her job was a continual battle of the
budget. Mike seemed to have no concept that money made by a
nonprofit ministry is different than personal income. Once, she
says, Mike Warnke responded to her efforts to curb his spending
this way: "He told me, `Every bit of the money is mine. I earned
it. If I wasn't out front, there would be no money.' "



   Jan Ross told us, "On several occasions Rose said to me that
anybody who was in the position she and Mike were in deserved to
have the best of everything because of who they were and what they
had given up to be where they were. I thought, `What did you give
up?' "[143]

   Phyllis Swearinger said there were problems making ends
meet.[144] "I'd worked at banks before, so I was used to handling
large amounts of money. But the amount that came in here every week
sort of threw me. And then to find out it just wouldn't go far
enough! Once Mike called me, upset because he needed some trees
pruned at his home, and I wouldn't write a check for it because we
didn't have enough money in the account at the moment. What struck
me about this conversation is Mike told me he felt he deserved to
make as large a salary as Jimmy Swaggart was making."

   The Warnkes' home was certainly in line with his high
aspirations. Back in July of 1983 Rose's mother, Blanche Hall, had
purchased a huge mansion (at one time a plantation) near Danville.
"Lynnwood Farm" was leased to HOCCK for several years and later
sold to Rose, who with Mike referred to it as "the parsonage."[145]

   Tax returns indicate HOCCK's total revenue for 1984 was over
$900,000. In 1985 HOCCK grossed over $1,000,000, with over $500,000
in love offerings alone. In 1986, the total went over two million:
love offerings brought in over $1,000,000; product sales (i.e.,
books and records) grossed over $180,000; and direct public support
totaled over $450,000. The 1987 total was $2,239,927. Revenue
figures for 1988 through 1990 continued at slightly over
$2,000,000.[146]

   HOCCK tax returns show that the Warnke's personal salaries[147]
steadily rose (see Table 1).

     ==============================================
           Table 1: Warnke's annual income
     ----------------------------------------------
                        MIKE           ROSE
         1984:       $ 34,500       $ 11,500
         1985:       $ 95,617       $ 83,417
         1986:       $163,632       $155,418
         1987:       $177,450       $177,450
         1988:       $183,917       $183,917
         1989:       $204,383       $204,383
         1990:       $239,291       $230,291
     ==============================================


   The growth of Warnke Ministries in the mid-eighties paralleled
a sudden explosion of public fears about Satanism. In March of
1985, Mike Warnke appeared on an ABC "20/20" report called "The
Devil
Worshippers," part of a deluge of talk shows and books on
contemporary Satanism. Stories of hideous satanic crimes were often
woven together by self-proclaimed "experts" to demonstrate the
existence of a worldwide satanic conspiracy similar to the
Illuminati network outlined in The Satan Seller.

   Each year, goes the theory, thousands of children are being
sacrificed in satanic rituals laced with sex and violence. Alleged
adult survivors of satanic ritual abuse testify to the hidden
cult's existence. The Satan Seller seems tame in comparison. Yet
when evidence for the conspiracy is requested, true believers
(including a few therapists and police officers) often refer
skeptics to Warnke and his book as a final authority.[148]

   In the early eighties, when Mike and Rose began to speak about
their Kentucky ministry to audiences on the road, they offered
descriptions typically centered around their work helping victims
of the occultlike "Jeffy."

   "Supposedly, Jeffy was this little boy who had become a
vegetable because of all the satanic abuse he'd had," says Jan
Ross. "The story was used to raise money to `help all the Jeffys of
the world, so there wouldn't be so many Jeffys.' Mike would say,
`What if your child was sent to preschool and this happened? How'd
you like this to happen to your child?' "

   The home office would always know when Mike was telling the
Jeffy story, says Dot Green. "People would write on the offering
envelopes, `This is for all the children like Jeffy.' It was
amazing how many envelopes would come back with Jeffy's name on it.
Mike always had to count the money after a concert and call Rose to
give her an idea of what was there," Dot continues. "She'd ask if
he'd told the Jeffy story. If he hadn't, she'd say, `You tell the
Jeffy story tomorrow night.' " Several staffers say the Warnkes'
interest in the at-home ministry never made it home from the road.
Says Dot, "I'd try to tell them about somebody who wrote needing
help, and they didn't want to hear."

   Adds Jan Ross, "We didn't get that many calls, maybe four or
five actual calls a day. Some people just wanted attention, but
every once in a while there'd be people with real problems. Mike
and Rose just didn't want to deal with them. They'd go on the road
and say, `We're here to help you,' but when you called they didn't
want to deal with you."

   For a while, Dot Green tried to ignore everything at Warnke
Ministries that wasn't connected to her counseling duties. "I loved
my job so much," she says. "I fooled myself into thinking it was my
ministry, since Mike and Rose didn't seem to have any interest in
it. But I started realizing the people I was writing to were
sending in offerings. I always put a pink offering envelope in with
each letter. I began marking my envelopes so I could tell which
came back with my mark. The month I left, my letters brought in
over $21,000. At that point, the Lord let me know I was just as
guilty as they were as long as I stayed."

   Jan Ross was in the midst of her own struggle. The staff
attended a series of Warnke shows in Cincinnati. "We did this
concert; it was just a super evening. Then we walked out and went
to a bar. The Warnkes were buying rounds of drinks, dancing. I kept
thinking the whole time, I wonder if anybody's going to come in and
recognize them."

   Roxanne remembers that trip. "We went to Cincinnati once. It
just grossed me out. They went out and drank and carried on
afterwards, Mike and the road guys. I said, `I just can't handle
this.' "

   Dot Green and Jan Ross left Warnke Ministries at the end of
1985. Roxanne Miller was fired in February 1986 (for refusing to
give Rose several signed, blank checks, she says), and Phyllis quit
soon after. "It's not been something we have forgotten easily,"
says Jan Ross. "It's scary to think you can get involved with
something like that with a pure heart, to serve God, and then find
out it's run on deception, lies, and thievery."

   Warnke Ministries continued to expand. In October of 1986, the
Warnkes purchased property in Burgin, Kentucky, which they then
sold to HOCCK.[149] A newsletter announced that a long-promised
"Center" was about to become a reality. Plans included rehab and
medical facilities. "Phase I" was the construction of an
administration building.[150]

   The fund-raising campaign began. "This Center is fast becoming
a reality and will be a reality if you make it one," said Mike in
a ministry newsletter. "Your gifts, offerings, and prayers enable
Warnke Ministries to continue its missions."[151]

   By April of 1987, Warnke Ministries was able to move to Burgin
and into their beautiful new colonial-style brick office
complex.[152]

   Dr. John Cooper worked for a short time in this building. In the
late eighties, Warnke Ministries opened a seminar department to
teach police and others the gruesome facts about Satanism and
occult crime. Dr. Cooper, a former college professor and author of
twenty-nine books, was hired in 1989 as director.

   Cooper has this to say about the Warnkes' "Center": "They were
raising money for a children's center for refugees from Satanism.
Phone calls would come to my office, people wanting to send kids
there. I'd explain to them that there wasn't any such thing there,
only a building with offices. The only parts of that building not
dedicated to getting Mike speaking engagements or handling receipts
were a large room set up like a Greek Orthodox Church and a
library."[153]

   Cooper disputes the Warnkes' claim of 50,000 counseling calls
and letters a month.[154] "There isn't any way in the world for
that to be so," he says. "My guess would be, on a daily basis, they
might get 6 calls." (Such a figure, if accurate, would translate to
120 calls per month.) "The only ministry I know of that went on
there was one fellow who worked part-time answering the phone. And
he'd usually just give out other ministry numbers and tell people
to call them."

   John Cooper spent several months preparing a seminar
presentation, which he premiered in May. Shortly afterwards, he was
fired. He later tried suing the Warnkes, but the case died in
court.

   A more important court case for Warnke Ministries was the 1991
divorce of Mike and Rose. According to the Warnkes' new book,
Recovering from Divorce, the serious problems in the marriage
date as far back as November 1984. In the book, Rose notes an "It's
over, isn't it?" talk with Mike that took place in his office in
December of 1984.[155]

   Some comparison with Rose's previous book is enlightening.
Written in mid- to late 1985, The Great Pretender reveals how
Rose caught Warnke in an "affair" in 1984. "We had a situation this
last year when we felt there was nothing left between us. We
weren't communicating, and Satan provided a woman to fill the gap
in Michael's life."[156]

   The conversation in the first book goes like this:

   He began to tell me there's nothing to this and that I'm   
misunderstanding it all.

   "Okay, okay," I growled, "I don't want to hear it. If you're   
not going to tell the truth, don't say anything. . . . You're   
throwing your ministry away, your life, the whole works. I'll   
guarantee you, people will not accept this. You're not going    to
go through another divorce and people accept it."[157]

   Rose says she threatened on Christmas Eve to call the woman, and
Mike responded by moving out. Later, after Warnke had promised to
end the relationship, Rose found out he was still calling the
woman. Says Rose, "He hid all the guns. Michael's a big gun
collector, and I know how to shoot. . . . I said, `I'll continue
running the ministry, I'll get myself established ministry-wise,
then I don't care what you do. You're not going to wreck my life.
I'll establish myself. You do what you want."[158]

   These incidents go unmentioned in the new book. Instead,
Recovering from Divorce presents a rather psychologized story of
a marital mismatch, doomed from the start. While the Warnkes are
evasive on the exact reasons, they make it clear their marriage was
a painful experience for both of them. Court records say the couple
last lived together in October of 1989.[159]

   Despite her earlier warnings in The Great Pretender about how
people would not accept another divorce, Rose Warnke filed for
divorce on September 4, 1991. A property settlement agreement drawn
up by Rose's attorney and signed by both Mike and Rose was filed
the same day.[160]

   Blanche Hall had deeded Lynnwood Farm to Rose in April of 1991.
In the divorce property settlement, Rose was also awarded 327
additional acres surrounding the farm, which the couple purchased
in April 1991 for $525,000 (despite the fact that they hadn't lived
together there since October, 1989.)[161] Mike Warnke also agreed
to pay half the mortgage for the new acreage.[162]

   Additionally, Rose got a condominium the Warnkes owned in
Stewart, Florida (purchased in May, 1986, for $398,000), and
another condominium the couple owned near Danville (purchased in
July, 1989, for $231,500).[163] Further, Rose got everything in all
the houses mentioned above, plus the Yamaha piano, the 1985
Cadillac, and the couple's four horses.

   Mike also agreed to pay Rose $8,000 per month ($96,000 per year)
for the rest of her life via a wage assignment out of Mike's salary
from HOCCK. Mike agreed to assume responsibility for paying various
liens, pay for the education of Rose's daughters until the year
2001, divide a $15,000 IRA with Rose, and also split the debt to
their accountant.

   Rose also got 65 percent of Warnke's ownership of his copyrights
for and royalties from absolutely everything he will make from his
books and recordings. Mike agreed to keep various existing life
insurance policies and take out an additional $2 million life
insurance policy on himself, with Rose as the beneficiary, for the
next fifteen years.

   Finally, Mike agreed to pay Rose $20,000 to equalize the
division of property.

   In the same property settlement, Mike Warnke was awarded
whatever property was located at the condo where he was staying,
his motorcycle, and visiting rights to the horses.

   October 2, 1991, the Warnkes' divorce was granted.[164] The
local paper quoted a ministry spokesman who said nothing would
change. Rose, who was identified as the music director and an
administrator, would continue to do separate shows and possibly
make joint appearances with Mike.[165]

   When it came time for Mike Warnke to announce his third divorce
officially to the friends of Warnke Ministries, he used a rationale
which he was sure his fellow believers would respect: He did it, he
said, for the ministry.





   "As many of you know," wrote Warnke, "Rose and I, after seeking
the Lord's guidance, and two years of intensive Christian
counseling, accepted the fact that our marriage was beyond
reconciliation, and the only hope of saving the Ministry we have
poured our lives into, was divorce."[166]

   Six weeks after his divorce was finalized, on November 18, 1991,
Mike Warnke married Susan Patton, an old Rim High classmate, and
moved to California.[167]

   As of this writing, Mike and Rose are scheduled to appear
together at the Christian Booksellers Association convention in
late June, where they will be promoting their new book, Recovering
from Divorce. According to CBA press material, the Warnkes will be
available for interviews to discuss their "unique perspective on
the troublesome issue of divorce."

   Their unique perspective: forgive and forget. In the book, Mike
and his ex-wife share the pain of their relationship and parting;
then the experiences are interpreted by their editor, Lloyd
Hildebrand, and therapist, John Joy. There is much talk of how sad
divorce is, and much assigning of blame to dysfunctional
backgrounds and a codependent relationship. Although they could not
be married, Mike and Rose conclude, they can now be friends.

   "Perhaps no one is ready for this book," writes Mike. "Could
being `up front' about our failure cost it all? That's the chance
I must take. Rose feels the same way. We both have come to the
place where we know that the only real choice we have is to go on
as
ourselves."[168]

   For those who would raise objections to what is, indeed, in the
Christian Church a "unique" perspective, Mike Warnke fires a
preemptive blast. "So I messed up. Does that change who Jesus
is?"[169] Likewise, he decries "the Gospel Gestapo" who feel bound
to discover and publicize the failures of those in ministry, "even
if the evidence proves to be true."[170]

   After our research was complete, we contacted Mike in early May
to set up an interview with him, to which we had invited some other
Christian leaders (Ron Enroth, Don Riling, and others). Mike
declined our interview and said he would only meet with us at his
attorney's office in Kentucky. We considered this a matter for the
Body of Christ, with no lawyers being necessary, and asked about
the possibility of meeting somewhere convenient for everyone.
Mike's response: that we have no further contact with him except
through his attorney. This ended our communication.

   This concludes a long and painful survey of the life and
ministry of Mike Warnke. We did not prepare it lightly, but
solemnly and with counsel from many dedicated ministers.


                      A Biblical Plan of Action

   We would be remiss in our duty as Christian journalists if we
could not offer some concrete suggestions and reflections.

   Some of our readers will expect us to have followed the steps of
Matthew 18:15-17, starting with a private confrontation. This
passage gives Christ's instructions on what to do "if your brother
sins against you," and the process stops if the brother repents
privately. We have two remarks on this passage.

   First, Mike has already been confronted numerous times over the
years by many concerned Christian friends, acquaintances, and
church leaders. Mike knows what the Bible says about truthfulness,
integrity, and fidelity. He is responsible to put into practice
what he already knows.

   Second, this is not a private dispute between Mike Warnke and a
magazine. A public figure is susceptible to public scrutiny and
criticism. Matthew 18 is not violated when public figures are
publicly rebuked. (However, other scriptures are violated if the
rebukes being made are not fair, true, or applicable to the
person.)

   Mike has sinned against the public for years, and the public is
entitled to know the truth about his claims and actions. The
misinformation about Mike's testimony is still in circulation,
influencing how Christians view contemporary Satanism. For the sake
of the Church and the watching world, it must be corrected. (A more
complete discussion of the biblical grounds for Christian reporting
appears in the article, "Public Trust," on page 5.)

   The statements made in this report are factual and verifiable.
Anybody can read Mike's book, study its time line, and see that
there is no way for him to have done the things he claimed in The
Satan Seller. Mike's former fiancee, his roommates, relatives, and
cohorts in school emphatically contradict his claims on everything
from hair length to drug use and from out-of-town trips to "love
slaves" in his apartment. Mike's own friends refused to sign an
affidavit that his Satanism testimony was true.

   If Mike has any real evidence to disprove what we've offered
here, we're willing to print it. However, the evidence we have
uncovered leads us to the conclusion that Mike doesn't have any.
One thing is certain: the Church should not let the master
storyteller get by with telling just another story: "There really
was a satanic coven; they just didn't talk to the right people.
. . ."

   At this stage, excuses aren't sufficient. Mike needs to provide
either evidence or repentance. It is not enough to make
religious excuses for sin or sophisticated attempts to change the
subject: "Those girls came on to me, and I was at a vulnerable
point in my life. . . ." "The person who said `the Christian Church
is the only army to shoot its own wounded' was totally right. . .
." "It's not up to you to judge my actions. Last time I read my
Bible, Jesus was sitting on the throne, and He's not about to get
off and let you take His place. . . ."

   This is sidestepping. It's a move to change the subject and get
away from calling one's actions sin and asking for forgiveness. The
issues are whether Mike has told the truth, whether he is fit for
public ministry, and whether he meets the standards for biblical
leadership. Like it or not, by addressing thousands of people he is
assuming a pastoral role, regardless of what he calls himself.

   If Mike were to seek forgiveness and restoration, what could the
Church expect to see as evidence of the genuineness of his
repentance? The following principles should apply to any Christian
leader who has manifestly fallen.

Repentance. Repentance is fundamental to Christianity. It denotes
a complete turnaround, heading in the opposite direction than
previously. Like "to love," to repent is a verb denoting action.
Nobody wants to see another Jimmy Swaggart crying crocodile tears
on camera but returning to save "the ministry" three months later
. . . and returning to the same sin after that. In Mike Warnke's
case, true repentance would necessitate complete withdrawal from
public ministry.

Confession. If Mike is repentant, he should make an open
admission of guilt. On the other hand, Mike Warnke has built a
career of telling us about past and present sins. The Church must
not allow him to emerge as a new authority on fraudulent
testimonies.

Restitution. True moral change involves some attempt to undo past
wrongs and to provide some kind of restitution. Perhaps the best
kind of restitution Mike Warnke could perform would be to take
Satan Seller and all his other products off the market.

   What about the rest of us? Accountability is a public as well as
a personal matter. Christian publishers have an obligation to
validate the books they print, whether nonfiction or historical
fiction books. At the same time, it is our responsibility as the
book-buying public to ask for evidence before accepting a story.

   After Warnke's testimony began circulating, those few who knew
the truth kept silent: they felt powerless against the immensity of
the story. Where could they turn? Well, the publisher would be a
place to start. We need the active participation of all members of
the Body of Christ in provoking each other to righteousness and,
where necessary, in providing biblical confrontation and counsel.





   Sometimes a twisted man can preach a straight gospel. Through
the years, we've known many people who could speak truth while
ignoring it in their personal lives. Scripture testifies that God
may bless or anoint a sermon even while condemning the deeds of the
preacher (Num. 23-24, 2 Pet. 2:15, Matt. 23:3).

   Yes, the love of God is truly as infinite and wondrous as Mike
Warnke has been telling us for twenty years. God loves Mike Warnke
as he really isex-Satanist, war hero, Ph.D.or not. His choice
now is no different than it has ever been: losing the whole world
or losing his soul. For no one can know the love of God whose heart
is closed to the truth.

   Perhaps he has never stopped feeling like an outsider, and even
when Christianity opened its arms to him, he would not give up his
storytelling. His adolescent flirtation with the occult was
exaggerated into a postadolescent fantasy of having incredible
amounts of money, sex, prestige, and power as a Satanist. He later
achieved money, sex, prestige, and power. Sadly, it was in the name
of Christ.

   It's not too late for Mike to change, if he wants to. The
secular press may scoff, and those who consider themselves real
Satanists may snicker, but the Jesus of the Bible is still the God
of truth. The Lord, who makes ruined lives whole and restores
purity to harlots and liars, offers each of us forgiveness and
acceptance. Not on our terms, but His.

   To Mike, and all others, who have been tempted to sacrifice the
truth for the sake of "the ministry," we can offer no better words
than these of the apostle Paul:

   Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received   
mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden   
things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the    word
of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth    commending
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight    of God. (2 Cor.
4:1-2)

ENDNOTES

 1. Coauthor David Balsiger, in his biographical sketch, says The
Satan Seller has sold only 500,000 copies.

 2. So-called satanic panic has led to tragedy in many cases. For
further information, see Jon Trott, "Satanic Panic," Cornerstone
20, iss. 95 (1991): 9.

 3. Mike Warnke marriage licenses. Interview, Fr. Bob Nagler, St.
Francis Cabrini Church, Crestline, CA.

 4. Interview, Mildred Warnke Jordan; Al Warnke obituary,
Manchester Times, 17 Oct. 1958.

 5. Mildred Warnke Jordan; Larry Nee, Manchester Times, 16 Oct.
1991, spoke with local undertaker, who referred to his notes on
Louise Cooper.

 6. Interview and letter, Shirley Schrader.

 7. "Final Rites for A. J. Warnke," Manchester Times, 17 Oct.
1958.

 8. Mike Warnke Alive!, Mike Warnke, Myrrh Records, 1976.

 9. Interview, Edna Swindell.

10. Interviews, Keith Schrader, Jr.

11. Interview, Tim Smith.

12. Interviews, Jeff Nesmith.

13. Interview, David Goodwin.

14. Interview, Terry Smith Perry.

15. Confirmation certificate (see above).

16. Charles Donovan, San Bernardino Valley College ref. librarian.

17. Warnke, Michael Alfred, USN, #B98 05 49.

18. Mike Warnke, Schemes of Satan (Tulsa, OK: Victory House,
1991), 87.

19. Interviews, Greg Gilbert.

20. Interviews, Dennis Pekus.

21. Interviews, Dawn Andrews.

22. Interview, Dyana Cridelich.

23. Mike Warnke, with Dave Balsiger and Les Jones, The Satan
Seller, (Plainfield, N.J.: Logos International, 1972), 18.

24. Interviews, Lois Eckenrod.

25. Satan Seller, 19.

26. Satan Seller, 14.

27. Interview, John Ingro.

28. Interviews, George Eubank.

29. Satan Seller, 19.
30. Interview, Phyllis Catalano.

31. Interview, Mary Catalano.

32. Interview, Tom Bolger.

33. Satan Seller, 19.

34. Satan Seller, 19, 20.

35. Satan Seller, 30.

36. Satan Seller, 33.

37. Satan Seller, 100, 101.

38. In 1981, Logos went bankrupt and sold its titles to Bridge
Publishing, which has since been purchased again. The new owners
were unable to locate any affidavits, signed or otherwise, for The
Satan Seller.

39. Interviews, Bill Lott.

40. Satan Seller, 64, 65.

41. Satan Seller, 29.

42. Satan Seller, 28.

43. Schemes of Satan, 73.

44. Satan Seller, 90, 91.

45. Mike Warnke, Hitchhiking on Hope Street (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday & Company, 1979), 63, 64.

46. "Focus on the Family" broadcast, 16 March 1985.

47. Satan Seller, 112-114, 116, 121.

48. Naval records show Warnke was transferred out of Recruit
Training Command on 22 August 1966. This is also the date he gives
on his video Do You Hear Me? as the day he became a Christian.

49. Satan Seller, 135.

50. Satan Seller, 137.

51. Interview, Charlotte Tweeten.

52. Navy Records.

53. Satan Seller, 136.

54. Mike Warnke, Hey, Doc!, 1978, Myrrh Records; Also,
Hitchhiking on Hope Street, 34.

55. Completed Hosp. Corps School 12/22/66; Reported to Field Med.
Serv. School, Camp Pendleton; 1/5/67; Reported to Naval Adcom, San
Diego, 2/7/67.

56. Certificate of Registry of Marriage, San Bernardino co., CA.

57. Satan Seller, 149, 150.

58. Interviews, Tim LaHaye.

59. Interview, Beverly LaHaye.

60. Transferred to Third Marine Division, Vietnam, 5/2/69.

61. Warnke Ministries Newsletter, 1 (1991), 4.

62. Satan Seller, 163.

63. Ibid., 165.

64. Ibid., 166.

65. Ibid.

66. Ibid., 168.

67. Hitchhiking on Hope Street, 42, 43.

68. Ibid., 45.

69. Ibid., 42.

70. "Decorations and Awards: Good Conduct Medal, Combat Action
Ribbon, Vietnam Service Medal, Purple Heart, Republic of Vietnam
Campaign Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam
Meritorious Unit Citation; Warnke transferred home 3/1/70.

71. Interview, George Wakeling.

72. Interview, Ron Winckler.

73. Don Musgraves, director of Cerullo's Youth Action Center in San
Diego, interview: "It was during those times that I began to have
heavy contact with people coming out of the occult . . . "; Peter
Brown, "Dropout Heads WitchcraftFight," San Diego Union, 15
January 1972, 1; "Evangelism Group Fights Witchcraft," San Diego
Union, 22 January 1972, p. 5B; Dave Balsiger, "Charismatic
Insider's Report," Logos Journal, May/June 1972, 39, 40.

74. Interview, Morris Cerullo; Balsiger, "Insider's Report;"
Christian Life, March 1972, 12.
75. Dave Balsiger, et al., "It's Happening Now," insert, San Diego
Evening Tribune, 17 January 1972. (See Roddy, below: " . . . 
Cerullo, surprisingly unassuming in contrast to the image created
by his flashy PR people . . . ") Peter Brown, "Dropout Heads
Witchcraft Fight"; John Dart, "Converted `Priest' Offers Guided
Tour of Satanism," Los Angeles Times, 19 January 1972, Sec. C,
Part II, 1; "Evangelism Group Fights Witchcraft"; Balsiger,
"Insider's Report."

76. Lee Roddy, "Morris Cerullo Crusade: A New Anointing?"
Christianity Today, 18 February 1972, 52-53.

77. Interview, Dave Balsiger.

78. Interview, Jean Jolly.

79. Navy Records, date of discharge, 2 June 1972.

80. Interview, George Eckeroth.

81. "YEAR END REPORT and APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE," Alpha Omega
Outreach, Rev. Mike Warnke, president, January, 1973.

82. Michael Warnke, "When Evil Fights Back," Guideposts, Nov.
1972, 22-26.

83. Dave Balsiger, "Charismatic Insider's Report," Logos Journal,
July-August 1972, 54.

84. Dave Balsiger, "Charismatic Insider's Report," Logos Journal,
Nov-Dec 1972, 56.

85. John P. Ferre, "Searching For the Great Commission: Evangelical
Book Publishing Since the 1970s," in American Evangelicals and the
Mass Media, ed. Quentin J. Schultze (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Zondervan, 1990), 99-101.

86. David Hazard, "Decatrends in Christian Publishing," Charisma,
August 1985, 140.

87. Michael Esses, Michael, Michael, Why Do You Hate Me?
(Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1973); Betty Esses DeBlase,
Survivor of a Tarnished Ministry (Santa Ana, CA: Truth
Publishers, 1983).

88. James Danne, "Demonic Spirits," Christian Century, 4 July
1973, 738; Paul Nevin, "On Selling Your Soul to the Devil," Moody
Monthly, July-August 1973, 52.

89. Dave Balsiger Biographical Sketch.




90. James E. Adams, "Regards Peril of the Occult As Worse Than That
of Drugs," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 November 1972; Hershel
Smith with Dave Hunt, The Devil and Mr. Smith (Old Tappan, NJ:
Fleming H. Revell Company, 1974); James H. Brewster, "Rolling Along
with the
Witchmobile," Probe the Unknown magazine, March 1973, 22-25;
Interview, Jean Jolly.

91. Darryl E. Hicks and Dr. David A. Lewis, The Todd Phenomenon
(Harrison, AK: New Leaf Press, 1979), foreword by Doug Wead and
Mike Warnke.

92. Don Cusic, "Mike Warnke: Jester in the King's Court,"
Contemporary Christian Music, June-July 1979, 130; Paul Baker,
"Two-Fold Laughter from Mike and Rose," Contemporary Christian
Music, December 1982, 14.

93. Jesse Joshua Warnke was born 4/18/74, according to Susan L.
Warnke Response, Civil Action D17252, District Court, Adams County,
CO.

94. Interview, John Witty.

95. Interview, Karen Siegal.

96. "Holdup Victim Named as Call Girl's Queen," Long Beach
Press-Telegram, Evening Final, 8 January 1971, identifies
Carolyn's mother as "kingpin of a local prostitution racket . . .
" Police call incident "the latest rounds in a mob war over control
of prostitution in the LB-LA area."

97. Bill Hance, "That One-Liner Religion is Good Enough for Him,"
The Nashville Banner, January 13, 1978, 30: "Until four years
ago, he was `just one of those preachers. . . . So, I started
lightening my testimony by telling jokes . . . '"

98. Bill Fisher says he flew with Warnke to Brockport while they
were still in Trinity (Fall '74-Spring '75). Fisher has a photo of
himself and Warnke on stage in Brockport, dated October 1975, and
another photo of himself and Warnke there, dated June 1976.

99. See Dave Medina, "Former Rabbi Named Chaldean Archbishop,"
Logos Journal, Nov-Dec 1972, 58.

100. Carol O'Connor, "Ex-Satanist Happier with Christ," The Denver
Post, 20 June 1975, 4BB.

101. Petition For Dissolution of Marriage, D-17252, confirm Warnke
moved to Colorado in August 1975.

102. March 1976 is the date on a photograph of Bill Fisher at Joy
Ranch.


103. Virginia Culver, "Devil-Worshippers Called Possible Cattle
Mutilators," The Denver Post, 5 October, 1975, 31.

104. The back cover of Mike Warnke Alive! notes "Recorded Live at:
Adam's Apple, Fort Wayne, Indiana, November 14, 1975."

105. The story of the recording of the album is told in Cusic,
"Jester in the King's Court," 28; Paul Paino interview.

106. Affidavit with Respect to Financial Affairs, Civil Action
D-17252, Adams County District Court, CO, 8/6/76. Warnke lists his
employer as "Dharma Productions, 807 Redwood Cr, Nashville, TN."

107. Interview, Dan Riling.

108. According to Petition for Dissolution, D-17252, Mike and Sue
last lived together January 1, 1976.

109. Date based on Mike Warnke's statement to Don Riling that Sue
was served while Riling was in Denver. The Affidavit of Service
says Sue Warnke was served Aug. 20, 1976, at 8:42 am.

110. Interviews, Gretchen Passantino. Two other CRI staffers also
contributed information regarding this meeting.

111. Cover story by Peggy Hancherick, "Mike Warnke, Jester in the
King's Court," Harmony, vol. 2, no. 3, 8-9. Full-page ad for
"Mike Warnke Alive!", 11.

112. This saying was related to us by Frank Edmonson (aka Paul
Baker), ex-DJ, writer, and popular historian of Jesus Music.
Edmonson worked for Word at the time Warnke was signed, and played
a key role in the signing.

113. Interview, Mike and Karen Johnson.

114. Interview, Wes Yoder.

115. Decree of Dissolution of Marriage, Civil Action D-17252, Adams
County District Court, CO, 12/3/76.

116. Marriage Certificate, Davidson County, Tennessee, 4/25/77.

117. "When Mike Warnke Speaks, the World Listens!", Myrrh records
ad in Contemporary Christian Music (hereafter, abbreviated
CCM), Februrary 1979, 26.

118. See 21-page commemorative section celebrating Dharma Agency's
10th anniversary in the February 1982 issue of CCM.

119. William D. Romanowski, "Contemporary Christian Music: The
Business of the Music Ministry," in American Evangelicals,
Quentin Schultze, ed., above, 152, 155.

120. Interview, Dan Hickling.

121. Interview, Buddy Huey.

122. Romanowski, 144, 151.

123. Interview, Larry Black.

124. "When Mike Warnke Speaks, etc."

125. Itinerary in May 1979, CCM.

126. Rose Hall Warnke with Joan Hake Robie, The Great Pretender
(Lancaster, Pa.: Starburst Publishers, 1985), 73-74.

127. Rose Hall Warnke, Great Pretender, relates her romance with
Mike, 73-85; quote cited on page 79. Carolyn is never mentioned,
nor that Warnke was married during this time, only the note, "He,
too, had been previously married." Final Decree, Sumner County
Court, 11/29/79, shows Warnke filed for divorce from Carolyn on
8/27/79, summons served 8/30/79. cf. Great Pretender, 83: "In
September of 1979, Michael said, `I want to marry you.'" CCM
itinerary shows Mike Warnke scheduled to play Sept. 28-29, 1979, in
Canada. Rose says she went to Canada with Mike (p. 83).

128. Rose Hall Warnke, Great Pretender, 81-82.

129. Interview, Tom Carrouthers.

130. Final Decree, Circuit Court for Sumner County, TN, 11/29/79.

131. Interview, Clarence Benes.

132. Certificate of Marriage, Johnson County, Kentucky, 1/2/80.

133. Mike and Rose Warnke, "First-Hand Rose," CCM, April 1981,
50; "Road Rap," CCM, July 1982, 51; Paul Baker, "Twofold Laughter
from Mike & Rose," CCM, December 1982, 14.

134. Warnke, Great Pretender, on booking, 119, on accounting,
148.

135. Television interview with Mike Warnke, "Believer's
Lifestyles," Channel 52, Orlando, Florida, 2/2/91, air-date
2/22/91.

136. Interviews, Elijah Coady; Joseph Morse; William Schillereff.

137. Marriage Certificate, Davidson County, Tennessee, 4/25/77.
Marriage "was solemnized by Mar Apriam I."

138. Articles of Incorporation, The Holy Orthodox Catholic Church,
Inc," dated 12/23/81. Pamphlet "This We Believe, Holy Orthodox
Catholic Church, Eastern and Apostolic" is dated 1977, copyright by
"His Beatitude, Mar Apriam I, Patriarch."

139. Articles of Incorporation, 11/19/82, for "The Holy Orthodox
Church in Kentucky, Inc."; Certificate of Assumed Name, 11/4/83,
HOCCK authorized by to do business under name "Mike Warnke &
Associates."; Certificate of Assumed Name, 3/1/88, HOCCK authorized
to do business under name "Warnke Ministries." "HOCCK, Inc. dba"
appears on Warnke Ministries letterhead.

140. Mike Warnke, "The Root of the Problem," CCM, Februrary 2,
1981; Rose Warnke, "Little Keys Unlock Big Doors," CCM, July
1981, 54; Land Contract, 7/1/81, for 153 Elm Street, Versailles,
between Warnkes and Virginia Wiglesworth, her husband James, for
$180,000.

141. Interviews, Dorothy Green.

142. Interviews, Roxanne Miller.

143. Interviews, Jan Ross.

144. Interviews, Phyllis Swearinger.

145. Deed, Equitable Relocation Management Corporation and Blanche
Hall, 7/29/83, for $235,000. Deed, Blanche Hall and Rose Hall,
3/1/91, for "the sum of One ($1.00) dollar, cash in hand paid, and
the Grantor's love and affection for her daughter."

146. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, HOCCK,
1984-1990 Forms.

147. Ibid.

148. One well-known example: James G. Friesen, Ph.D., Uncovering
the Mystery of MPD (San Bernardino, Calif.: Here's Life
Publishers, 1991), uses Warnke's book in both text and footnotes to
bolster far-reaching claims concerning a satanic cult conspiracy.

149. Deed, Lelia Mann Brown, et al. and Michael A. Warnke and
Rosemary H. Warnke, 10/28/86, for $20,395.70. Deed, Michael Warnke
and Rosemary Warnke and HOCCK, for "the sum of $1.00 and as a gift,
contribution, and donation."

150. Warnke Ministries Newsletter, 1st Quarter, 1987, 1.

151. Ibid.

152. Warnke Ministries Newsletter, 1st Quarter, 1988, p. 2 " . .
. by the time you receive this newsletter, we will be moved into
the new building."

153. Interviews, Dr. John Cooper.


154. Cf. Rose Warnke, Great Pretender, 181, "At ministry
headquarters we get some 50,000 letters and telephone calls each
month."

155. Michael A. Warnke & Rose Hall Warnke, Recovering From
Divorce, (Tulsa: Victory House, Inc.), 22-25.

156. Rose Warnke, Great Pretender, 86.

157. Ibid, 87-88.

158. Ibid, 88-90.

159. Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, 9/4/91.

160. Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, Mercer Circuit Court,
Kentucky (#91-CI-00274), Rose Hall Warnke vs. Michael A. Warnke,
9/4/91; Response, Entry of Appearance, and Waiver by Respondent,
9/4/91; Separation and Property Settlement Agreement, 9/4/91.

161. Lynnwood Farm, see above note. Deed, Land Owners, L.P., and
Michael A. Warnke and Rose H. Warnke for new acreage, 4/19/91, for
$525,000.

162. Mortgage, American Fidelity Bank & Trust, Corbin, KY, 9/10/91,
Rose Hall Warnke and Michael A. Warnke for $250,000. Mortgage,
State Bank & Trust Company, Harrodsburg, KY, 9/27/91, Rose Hall
Warnke and Michael A. Warnke, for $31,500.50.

163. Deed, Charles W. Pistole and Michael and Rose Mary Warnke,
5/30/86, for 2001 Salifish Point, Apt. 308, Stuart, FL for
$398,000. Deed, Mary & Clinton Woodard and Michael A. Warnke and
Rose H. Warnke, 7/24,89, for Chimney Rock property for $231,500.

164. Final Decree of Dissolution of Marriage, Mercer Circuit Court,
Kentucky (#91-CI-00274), Rose Hall Warnke vs. Michael A. Warnke,
10/2/91.

165. Amy Wolfford, "Official downplays effect of Warnke divorce on
ministry," Danville Advocate-Messenger, 24 Oct. 1991, 1.

166. Undated Warnke Ministries letter (begins "Dear Ministry
Family, It is again the start of a New Year, PRAISE GOD!").

167. License and Certificate of Marriage, Santa Cruz County, CA, 18
Nov. 1991. 43. "Authors Available for Interview," Christian
Booksellers Convention, Dallas, Texas, June 29--July 2, 1992, 15.

168. Warnke & Warnke, Recovering From Divorce, 63.

169. Ibid, 164.

170. Ibid, 159.

 AUTHOR:  Jon Trott and Mike Hertenstein
 SOURCE:  Cornerstone magazine, vol. 21, issue 98, page 18
   DATE:  1992
  TITLE:  Why the Dates Don't Work
  NOTES:  sidebar to "Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike
Warnke"           Copyright 1992 by Cornerstone Communications,
Inc.  

                       WHY THE DATES DON'T WORK

   "Some of the names in this book have been changed to protect the 
  individuals involved. The events are absolutely as described."  
                          flyleaf to The Satan Seller


   This section will disclose formidable chronological problems in
The Satan Seller, totally apart from the historical investigative
research which appears in the main body of this article. These
discrepancies could have been uncovered by anyone else in the past
twenty yearsincluding uswith minimal research. But nobody took
the time to do the math.

   Dates are rare in The Satan Seller. Yet Mike Warnke provides
just enough information to check his story against a real calendar.
He says he didn't join the Satanists until after college began, and
he was kicked out of the satanic cult just before he joined the
Navy.

   Some external information helps to define the limits of this
period. School records show freshman classes began at San
Bernardino Valley College on September 13, 1965. Mike Warnke's
Naval records show he entered the Navy on June 2, 1966.

   Things can be narrowed even further. Warnke gives us a midpoint
in his history, when he makes it clear he became a satanic high
priest shortly before Christmas, 1965.[1] In fact, he provides
enough information for us to determine the exact date he became a
high priest.

   Mike's book describes two important events which took place
before Christmas, each of them on the night of a full moon: the
night he joined the coven,[2] and the night he became a high
priest.[3] According to the 1965 World Almanac, there were three
full moons that year between the date school began and Christmas:
October 10th, November 8th, and December 8th.[4]

   Obviously, this pair of significant events described by
Warnkeif they actually happenedmust have happened on two of
these three dates.

   He couldn't have joined the coven on the full moon of October
10th, and here's why: The Satan Seller tells us Warnke visited
his first Black Mass "three weeks" before being initiated into the
coven (under a full moon).[5] The Black Mass did not occur until
"about a month after" he was fired from his job.[6] He didn't take
the job until after degenerating from a shy freshman to a drug
addict who needed money for speed.[7] Even if that transformation
happened in a single day, and Warnke got the job the first day of
school (Sept. 13), the addition of "about a month" plus "three
weeks" brings us forward to November 1. This totally eliminates the
October 10th full moon as a possibility.

   Therefore, based on the information he provides us, Mike Warnke
could only have been initiated into his satanic cult on the full
moon of November 8th, and been made High Priest on the full moon of
December 8th. Now that we have these dates, we can figure out one
more. Warnke's visit to his first Black Mass, three weeks before
the November 8th initiation, must have occurred on or near October
18th.

   That means everything Mike Warnke says he did between the start
of school and his first Black Massnamely, his transformation into
a drug addict/pushermust have taken place in only five weeks.

   Yet the real calendar forces us to continue the relentless
whittling: Warnke doesn't have five weeks. He has no time at all.

   Here's why: Warnke says that some "days" after college
begins,[8] he is offered marijuana, turns it down, but changes his
mind in "a week or so."[9] After trying marijuana, he experiments
with LSD, reds, mescaline, peyote, and finally speed. He gets a job
to support his speed habit,[10] gets fired, and "about a month
after I had been fired," his satanic recruiter, Dean, invites
Warnke to his first sex orgy.[11] Sometime after that, Mike attends
his first Black Mass on Oct. 18th.

   The seven days it took Mike to begin using marijuana, plus the
month between losing his job and his first orgy fills up the five
weeks till October 18.

   This leaves no time for the unspecified number of days which
Mike says elapsed between the time school started and the time he
was first offered marijuana.[12]

   This leaves no time for him to be addicted to all those drugs,
which is Mike's reason for getting a job in the first place. During
his days of drug addiction, Mike says he was transformed from a
"heavyset jovial guy down to 125 pounds."[13] The necessary time
interval is missing between Mike's first toke of marijuana and his
transformation into a hard-core speed freak, desperate for cash.

   This leaves no time for Mike to work at his job. Warnke says
he took the job to support his drug habit. After getting hired,
then he dropped out of school, then became a pusher himself, then
he got fired.[14] Even if he got fired the same day he was hired,
there's not enough time.


   This leaves no time between Mike's first sex orgy and his
first Black Mass. Mike says that after that first orgy, he
"started attending these parties regularly,"[15] ran errands for
Dean (including a big drug payoff near the Mexican border),[16]
then attended some "secondary meetings" in witchcraft, then
"finally" was invited to the Black Mass.[17] But there's no time
for trips to Mexico or unspecified evenings spent in debauchery,
because by the time of that first orgy, we're already at October
18th, the date of the first Black Mass. Long before this point,
time has run out.

   There's no other way to add things up. No wonder Warnke's
friends had trouble with the dates in The Satan Seller! But with
Mike's publication in 1991 of Schemes of Satan, we have more
events to squeeze into this impossible calendar:

   . . . before I became directly involved in satanism, I was   
riding my motorcycle across the Texas plains. . . . I had just   
concluded a successful drug deal in Louisiana. . . . Several   
days later I was in California, and soon thereafter I took my   
first steps toward becoming a satanist high priest![18]

   There is also no time for this story, which appeared in the
October 1976 issue of Harmony magazine:

   Now, I'm a strong civil rights advocate. The last time I had   
been in Alabama was with Dr. Martin Luther King, back in my   
college days when I went down there on Freedom Rides. The last   
time I was there was to march in a civil rights
   demonstration.[19]

   Set aside the question of why a Satanist would take an interest
in civil rights. A more pressing issue is the fact that the Freedom
Rides were in 1961, four years before Warnke started college. It is
true that Martin Luther King marched to Selma, Alabama, in 1965,
but it was in April of 1965, while Warnke was still a senior in
high school.

   Yet another anachronism appears in his testimony: the Charles
Manson problem. As of January 1972, Warnke was claiming to have had
"former acquaintance with Charles Manson," according to a twelve-
page promotional insert in the San Diego Evening Tribune.[20]
This story was amplified in The Back Side of Satan, a book
credited to Morris Cerullo, but written by Dave Balsiger (Warnke's
coauthor for The Satan Seller).[21]

   Back Side devotes an entire chapter to Warnke's story, and
includes a major detail that The Satan Seller omits:

   Mike says he saw convicted killer Charles Manson at such a   
ritual once and that Manson "thought he was being
   shortchanged. He favored actually sacrificing the person." He  
 described Manson as being a person who "bugged everybody he    was
around. . . ." And, he added, "Manson had bad
   eyeballs."[22]

   This same book has Mike Warnke attending a conference in San
Francisco in January 1966, noting, "It was here, among other
places, that Warnke saw Manson."[23] Also, newspaperman Murray
Norris (credited in the "Acknowledgements" of The Satan Seller)
told us that Mike claimed to have known Charles Manson and even
spent a few days in the desert with him.[24]

   One problem here. During the entire time Warnke was allegedly a
Satanist, Charles Manson was imprisoned at the federal penitentiary
on McNeil Island, off the coast of Washington State. Manson wasn't
released from his six-year stretch for forgery until March 1967, by
which time Warnke was in the Navy.[25]

   These comparisons demonstrate that Mike Warnke's story does not
meet the test of time or history.


NOTES

 1. Mike Warnke, with Dave Balsiner and Les Jones, The Satan
Seller (Plainfield, N.J.: Logos International, 1972), 73-74.
Hereafter, abbreviated SS.

 2. SS, 35.

 3. SS, 58.

 4. The 1965 Almanac and Book of Facts (New York: New York World-
Telegram and Sun, 1965), ed. Harry Hansen, 476.

 5. SS, 33, 36.

 6. SS, 25.

 7. SS, 23. In writing about this period, Warnke marks the time
with phrases such as "a week or so went by." The overall impression
is that several weeks or even a couple months elapsed between the
start of school and getting the job.

 8. SS, 18.

 9. SS, 19.

10. SS, 23. In retrospect Warnke's alleged habit of "ten dollars
a week" for speed seems fairly mild.

11. SS, 25.

12. SS, 18. The text says only "the days went by," but context
implies more than a week, since Warnke goes from attending classes
"regularly at first" to falling victim to alcohol abuse.

13. SS, 23. The alleged weight drop may have occurred after
Warnke's employment.

14. SS, 23-25.

15. SS, 28.

16. SS, 29-30.

17. SS, 31, 32-33 (emphasis added).

18. Michael A. Warnke, Schemes of Satan (Tulsa: Victory House,
1991), 43-44.

19. Peggy Hancherick, "Mike Warnke: Jester in the King's Court,"
Harmony, Sept./Oct. 1976, 9.

20. Dave Balsiger et al., "It's Happening Now," insert, San Diego
Evening Tribune, 17 Jan. 1972.

21. Phone interview with Dave Balsiger.

22. Morris Cerullo, The Back Side of Satan (Carol Stream, Ill.:
Creation House, 1973), 170-171.

23. Back Side, 171.

24. Phone interview with Murray Norris.

25. Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter (New York: W.W. Norton,
1974), 195. Particularly odd is the fact that Manson's 1967 release
date was included in Back Side on pp. 76-77.






















 AUTHOR:  Jon Trott & Mike Hertenstein
 SOURCE:  Cornerstone magazine, vol. 21, issue 98, page 14
   DATE:  1992
  TITLE:  Higher Education?
  NOTES:  sidebar to "Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike   
          Warnke"           

        Copyright 1992 by Cornerstone Communications, Inc.

                           HIGHER EDUCATION?

   Mike Warnke has made his academic credentials a matter of high
profile. His postgraduate education may be plotted in this way:

1979: Warnke reports he's working on a master's in philosophy at
Valley Christian University in California, primarily through
correspondence courses. "He hopes eventually to obtain a
doctorate."[1]

1982: On his album Higher Education, Warnke announces he's
completed a master's program and is working on a Ph.D. in
philosophy.[2] When the album is released, CCM magazine reports
Warnke has finished his Ph.D. in philosophy to go with two master's
degrees: one in Christian education, the other in theology.[3] Says
record company promo: "Mike Warnke has an earned doctorate in
philosophy and an honorary one in humor."[4]

1983: On a state financial form, Warnke lists his academic credits
as: "B.S. biblical studies, B.S. Christian education, M.S.
Christian education, and a Ph.D. Divinity"course work complete;
awaiting dissertation."[5] No "earned doctorate" in philosophy,
only one master's degree.

1985: On Warnke's Stuff Happens album, the list goes like this:
"I have two bachelor's degrees, two master's degrees, and I'm
working on a Ph.D. at Assumption College."[6]

1988: A Warnke promo sheet reads, "Mike studied counseling and
education at Valley Christian University, Clovis, California, where
he earned both his Bachelor and Master of Arts. Assumption College,
Clovis, California, conferred the honorary Doctor of Theology
degree upon him, and he is currently working on a Ph.D. in
philosophy at Assumption."[7] No mention of the 1983 all-but-
dissertation Divinity degree, or the second master's degree.

1989: On his Do You Hear Me?! video, Warnke says "I have two
bachelor's degrees. I have two master's degrees, and a Doctor of
Divinity from Antioch University."[8]


Here is the list of Mike Warnke's academic credits as we have been
able to document them:


1965: San Bernardino Valley College (a junior college)one
semester.[9]

1970: Navy Cardiopulmonary Schoolone-year school, graduated
10/5/70.[10]

1975: Trinity Bible College (unaccredited)nine-month school,
graduated spring, '75. Confirmed by daughter of school president
and several students.[11]

1980: Valley Christian Universityawarded bachelor's degree in
counseling on 9/23/80. This school (also known as Assumption
College) was a family-run Bible school in Fresno, California.
According to Mrs. Murray Norris, wife of the college founder, there
is no record that Warnke received any other degree from Valley
Christian/Assumption.[12]

?: Antioch Universitythe school by this name in Yellow Springs,
Ohio, and branches in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara deny Warnke was
ever a student. None grant doctorates.[13] Interestingly, Warnke's
friend, Bishop Richard Morrill, was connected with an Antioch
Christian College in Studio City, California.[14] Bishop Elijah
Coady, friend of the late Morrill, thinks Antioch may have been one
of several schools Morrill was associated with that existed only on
paper. In 1990, Morrill turned Antioch College over to a Dr. G. J.
Thompson in Denver, Colorado.[15] When the state of Colorado asked
for names of officials in the church body overseeing the school,
Thompson responded with a list that included Rev. Dr. R. Morrill,
and "the Right Reverend Michael Warnke" of Burgin, Kentucky.[16]
Morrill, who consecrated Warnke a bishop, may have also granted
Mike his 1989 Doctor of Divinity.

Postscript: On his 1991 marriage license for his fourth marriage,
Warnke says he has completed twenty-two years of education.[17]

ENDNOTES:

 1. Don Cusic, "Mike Warnke, Jester in the King's Court,"
Contemporary Christian Music (July 1979): 28.

 2. Mike and Rose Warnke. Higher Education. Myrrh, 1982.

 3. "People and Places," Contemporary Christian Music (July
1982).

 4. "Dr. Warnke Speaks Out on Alligators," ad for Higher
Education, Myrrh, 1982.

 5. Application for Recognition of Exemption, The Holy Orthodox
Catholic Church in Kentucky, signed 9/26/83 by Rev. Fr. Mike
Warnke.

 6. Mike Warnke. Stuff Happens. Dayspring, 1985.

 7. "Mike Warnke Bio Sheet," undated, but refers to a 1988 album.

 8. Mike Warnke. Do You Hear Me? Dayspring/Zoe Corporation, 1989.

 9. Registrar SBVC, interview, confirmed by Prof. Harold Chandler.

10. Mike Warnke naval records.

11. Eunice Duncombe Walker is daughter of Trinity founder Charles
Duncombe. Warnke classmates interviewed include Carolyn Warnke,
John and Vicki Jo Witty, Bill Fisher, Karen Siegal, Clarence Benes,
and others.

12. Interview with Mrs. Murray Norris, wife of college founder, who
conducted us on a personal examination of Warnke's Valley Christian
University records, in Fresno, in January of 1992.

13. Letters to author from registrars.

14. Gary L. Ward, et al., ed., Independent Bishops: An
International Directory (Detroit: Apogee Books), 283. Coady
interview.

15. Letter from Richard Morrill, dated 10/6/90, on letterhead from
Antioch Christian College, 4058 Tujunga Avenue, Suite 1, Studio
City, CA, transferring "Administration and Governing of the College
to: Dr. Garrison John Thompson," effective 11/1/90.

16. Letter from Dr. Timothy Grieder, Colorado Commission on Higher
Education, to Thompson, 1/16/91; Letter from Thompson to Grieder,
1/22/91. Bishop Warnke listed under category "American Orthodox
Catholic Church (Holy Synod of America)".

17. License and certificate of marriage, Santa Cruz County, CA, 18
Nov. 1991.



















 AUTHOR:  Bob & Gretchen Passantino
 SOURCE:  Cornerstone magazine, vol. 21, issue 98, pp. 5,22       
   DATE:  1992
  TITLE:  Public Trust: Should Christians Tell the Truth?
  NOTES:  Copyright 1992 by Bob & Gretchen Passantino.

                           PUBLIC TRUST:
                   Should Christians Tell the Truth?

                     by Bob & Gretchen Passantino


   Of course Christians should tell the truth! And yet, Christians
today seem to forget about the importance of telling the truth when
it comes to being truthful about a Christian leader's secret moral
failures. Why is it right to tell the truth about a corrupt
politician's extramarital affairs, but wrong to reveal the truth
about a Christian evangelist's sexual immorality? Why do Christians
applaud truth telling about fraudulent medical research, but scorn
the Christian who exposes the false testimony of a Christian
celebrity? Do we Christians really care about truth? If we do,
why do we abandon unpleasant truths about sin in the Church and
immorality in Christian leadership?

   Two issues are fundamental to understanding the biblical basis
for telling the truth about Christian sin: (1) the nature and
importance of truth and the moral responsibility that comes from
knowing truth, and (2) biblical principles for integrity and
honesty in Christian leadership.

                         The Nature of Truth

   Conservative, biblical Christians have always understood God's
standards of truth to be absolute and uncompromising. The Bible
describes Jesus as the "faithful and true witness" (Rev. 3:14), and
He calls Himself "the truth" (John 14:6). Jesus, the divine person
who became man, cannot lie or deceive. His standard of truth
telling is perfect. But what does this mean for us, His
followersChristians who are not omniscient? Shouldand
canChristians tell the truth?

   Fortunately, we do not have to grope in the dark concerning
Christian behavior and truth. The Bible has given us clear outlines
of our moral and intellectual responsibilities for truth telling.
God's revealed will in His Word recognizes and supplements man's
limitations regarding knowledge and moral duty. We can look to
God's Word to discern our truth-telling responsibilities.

   A Christian's commitment to truth derives from honesty as a part
of God's nature. (By this, we are not saying that believers
automatically think, speak, and act with the full integrity of
God.) The psalmist declares that God's truthfulness and right
judgment come from His righteousness (Ps. 119:142, 160). Isaiah
65:16 says we serve the God of truth, the "Amen," or the one who
determines what will be. As Jesus calls Himself the truth in John
14:6, the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of truth" in verse
seventeen of the same chapter.

   Our response to the embodiment of truth in God is to worship Him
"in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23, 24). This is made possible by
the power of the Holy Spirit, who with the Father and the Son
"sanctifies" us in the truth (John 17:17, 19) and establishes us in
the truth (2 Peter 1:12). The Scriptures are called "the word of
truth" (2 Tim. 2:15), and the Christian faith is compared to
"walking in the truth" (3 John 3, 4). The truth makes us free (John
8:31, 32).

   Telling the truth is not merely an intellectual exercise, nor
even simply a moral imperative. Truth telling should flow naturally
from our moral character, redeemed by Christ's death on the cross
and nurtured by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:25 commands believers to "put away lying." Romans 2:8
contrasts the unredeemed as those who reject truth and the redeemed
as those who "obey the truth," a concept stated positively in 1
Peter 1:22. Paul couples truth with love in Ephesians 4:15, a
passage which should assure us that we do not abandon Christian
love by telling the truth. Psalm 15:2 equates walking "upright"
with both righteousness and speaking the truth in one's own heart.

   The world has challenged the truthfulness of Christianity for
almost two thousand years, and Christianity has always passed the
test. Christianity is a faith based on fact, a faith that claims to
accurately represent history and reality.

   Jesus challenged the skeptics of His day to test His words or
testimony by investigating His works: "If I do not do the works of
my Father, do not believe me; but if I do, though you do not
believe me, believe the works, that you may know . . . " (John
10:37, 38). Luke was a discerning researcher and investigator who
"had perfect [accurate] understanding of all things from the very
first" (Luke 1:1-4). Paul pointed to eyewitness testimony to
support his "story" of Jesus' Resurrection when he listed the
eyewitnesses to the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:5-8). Peter asserted
the testability of the facts of Christianity when he declared, "We
did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Peter 1:16).

   Journalists, archaeologists, historians, philosophers, and
attorneys have investigated the claims of Christianity for two
thousand years in efforts to destroy its credibility. Instead,
responsible investigation repeatedly affirms the truthfulness of
Christianity.

   In the Christian's life, truthfulness and integrity go hand in
hand. Truthfulness is a necessary part of calling a sinner to
repentance and also of restoring fallen Christians to faithfulness.
When a Christian fails to respond to an opportunity to tell a
nonbeliever the truth about the consequences of unbelief, he is
held responsible by God (Ezek. 33:1-9). If a Christian fails to
confront a fellow believer who is in sin, God calls him a
participant in sin (1 Cor. 5, 1 Tim. 5:20-22).

   Jesus held people accountable for what they knew, saying, "If I
had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now
they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father
also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did,
they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both
me and my Father. But this happened that the word might be
fulfilled which is written in their law, `They hated me without a
cause' " (John 15:22-25, NKJV; cf. 9:41).

   The biblical references above show us that Christians' lives
should be characterized by truth. The Bible also gives us
principles governing difficult truth-telling situations. For
example, a general biblical ethic of truth telling allows for
remaining silent when to speak would endanger human life (Exod.
1:15-22). In a hierarchical sense, some Christian ethicists
interpret Rahab's lie concerning the Israelite spies (Josh. 2:1-24)
as subordinate to her obligation to protect innocent human life.

   Most Christians see no ethical dilemma in leaving lights and a
television on at night in an empty house to "deceive" a would-be
burglar into thinking the house is occupied. Yet even with these
ethical complexities, Christians should be committed to integrity
and truth telling. Graduated absolutism does not justify
relativism, false testimonies, immorality, or irresponsibility
concerning truth.

   We become rightly outraged that women with crisis pregnancies
are not told the truth about fetal development by abortion
providers. We are justified in resenting the secular media for
using emotive, biased vocabulary to obscure the truth of biblical
ethical standards. We approve of investigations that uncover
political corruption in Washington, insider trading on Wall Street,
and consumer fraud in the corporate world.

   One would think that our outspoken faithfulness to truth telling
would extend to telling the truth about sin within the Church. And
yet at this point many Christians shrink from truth telling,
instead hiding behind empty platitudes such as "Don't judge,"
"Forgive and forget," "Don't shoot your own wounded," "Look at all
the people who came to the Lord through this ministry," etc. Sadly,
we have unbiblically acted as though telling the truth about a
sinning Christian leader contradicts biblical concern for that
leader.

   Christians who cry out, "It's wrong to judge," are ignoring the
context of the passage (Matt. 7:1-2), which does not forbid judging
but instead insists on judgment according to God's word. In
addition, a judgmental criticism of judgment is self-refuting: "I'm
judging you for judging me." If it is wrong for a Christian
journalist to publicly criticize a Christian leader whose testimony
is false or who is immoral, then isn't the critic also wrong for
publicly criticizing the Christian journalist? A political
candidate who falsely accuses his opponent of lying and who is
himself found to be a liar loses all credibility. Paul points out
this contradiction among some Jews, saying, "You who say, `Do not
commit adultery,' do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do
you rob temples?" (Rom. 2:22).

   A critic who criticizes someone for criticism is condemned by
his own conviction. One who speaks English, uttering the sentence
"I can't utter a word in English," has refuted himself. Aren't
those who accuse Christian investigative journalists of being the
"Christian Gestapo" themselves acting Gestapo-ish?

   To equate forgiveness with absolution from personal
responsibility is to cheapen biblical forgiveness and to deny
biblical justice.

   Assuming that integrity and accountability exclude compassion
unfairly brands truth telling as "shooting" and ignores that "the
wounded" have been wounded by their own sin.

   Christians who try to excuse false testimonies and immorality by
pointing to the "fruits" of a ministry deny Paul's forceful
argument in Romans 3:8 that to do evil that good may come is
slanderous and contrary to biblical ethics.

                       Biblical Accountability

   The Bible clearly states that Christian leaders should be
accountable both to the Word of God and also to God's people, whom
the leader serves. Among the requirements Paul describes for a
Christian leader are that he be "blameless," and "of good behavior"
(1 Tim. 3:2). A Christian leader must "have a good testimony among
those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of
the devil" (1 Tim. 3:7). This does not mean that the Christian
leader is simply good at covering up his sin. Christian leaders
must display integrity and honestythey must prove themselves
worthy of trust.

   The objections we have cited against revealing a Christian
leader's sin seem to imply that it is possible for one to have a
valid Christian ministry or profession and yet have a private life
of corruption. However, the Bible explains that one's sinful
conduct will have a negative effect on one's profession of
godliness. Titus 1:6-8 summarizes the same qualifications for a
Christian leader that Paul gave in 1 Timothy 3, but goes on to
condemn one who says he believes and yet whose works deny his
profession of faith:




   To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled  
 and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and   
conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works   
they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified   
for every good work (Titus 1:15-16).

   To attempt to combine immorality with godliness to produce
spiritual fruit is completely contrary to scriptural teaching. In
fact, Paul ranks it with "profane and vain babblings" and warns
Timothy to avoid "contradictions of what is falsely called
knowledge" (1 Tim. 6:20).

   In addition, Jesus openly rebuked Peter when Peter argued
against Jesus going to the cross (Matt. 16:22, 23). Paul writes
Titus that it is the responsibility of the church to hold the
leader accountable for his sin: "Therefore rebuke them sharply,
that they may be sound in the faith" (Titus 1:13). Paul also
commands Christians to rebuke sinning leaders publicly: "Those who
are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may
fear" (1 Tim. 5:20). Paul took his own advice, as recorded in
Galatians 2, and publicly rebuked Peter "before them all" (verse
14).

   If we neglect to confront sin within the Church, we rob the
Church of the integrity it should expect from its members. The
Church becomes weak through compromise, and the leader becomes weak
because of his continuing hypocrisy. Fallen leaders betray the
trust of those they lead. Maturity in the Lord, which is an
essential part of qualifying one for spiritual leadership, can be
confirmed only by an established pattern of resisting sin and
walking faithfully with God, family, and others.

   First Thessalonians 5:21-22 commands us to "test all things,"
and Paul commended the Bereans for "searching the Scriptures" to
test what he himself had taught them (Acts 17:11). The Christian
whose life is characterized by truth telling must support spiritual
leaders whose lives exemplify Christian maturity, and must hold
those leaders accountable.

   If a Christian leader's life is bound by immorality, the
Christian has the obligation then to expose that sin publicly,
since the leader is public and his actions impact the church he
leads. Such a confrontation is not license for slander or
rumormongering; obviously, any public expose of a Christian leader
must be done in the spirit of the Golden Rule, confirmed through
valid evidence, and conducted in a manner to bring honor to Christ
and the Church.

   Fallen leaders damage the trust relationship established between
them and their followers, a relationship mirroring the trusting
relationship we are to have with the Lord. In addition, they break
the trust relationship Peter tells us to maintain before the world;
that is, we are to live so that even the world will note our
trustworthiness and be unable to speak against us, but will,
instead, glorify God (1 Peter 2:12).

   It is unethical for Christians to cover up for leaders who have
achieved their position through false qualifications or stories, or
who are living immorally. Can the Church claim a higher ethical
standard than the world when we adopt a "code of silence" worthy of
the most pernicious organized crime conspiracyor even some
suspected invisible satanic ring?

   Some people in society have a greater responsibility for honesty
and integrity than others. This does not mean that it's less wrong
for one person to lie than another, but a public leader has a
greater responsibility because the consequences of his failure
have greater ramifications. A layperson who has a mistaken medical
opinion will not affect the lives and health of as many people as
a doctor with a misunderstanding of medicine.

   An individual in a position of public trust surrenders his
privacy regarding his suitability and trustworthiness. He has taken
a position in which the public is expected to trust him for
specific reasons or qualifications. Those reasons and
qualifications are open to public scrutiny. He may not exempt
himself from scrutiny by claiming he need only speak the truth when
he's on the platform, but otherwise his life and actions ought to
be nobody's business. If the leader is trustworthy, they will
withstand examination. If he is not, close examination will reveal
their inadequacies. Christians who are committed to truth must
preserve this fundamental right and obligation to know in whom they
are asked to trust.

   The examples of Jesus and His disciples' commitment to
truthfulness and integrity give us our model for investigative
Christian journalism and for holding our Christian leaders
accountable. If we do not expose false testimonies and revisionist
histories, especially when they are propagated by Christians, then
all truth claims and all historical knowledge come into doubt. We
can have no certainty of the truth of Christianity or the objective
reality of the Resurrection.

   In the first century, the apostle Paul could claim that the
Resurrection "was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26). Should
Christians be so careless with the truth that we need to hide our
corrupt leaders "in a corner" to preserve the faith rather than
speak the truth and call those corrupt leaders to repentance and
reconciliation? God forbid!









 AUTHOR:  Glenn Kaiser
 SOURCE:  Cornerstone magazine, vol. 21, issue 98, page 36.       
   DATE:  1992
  TITLE:  Kaiz Replies (regular column).  Accountability in ccm?  
  NOTES:  Copyright 1992 by Cornerstone Communications, Inc.


                        ACCOUNTABILITY in ccm?

   In contemporary Christian music circles I have heard people
roundly criticize various aspects of the "traditional" church. In
some places the church does more resemble a social club or business
rather than a family where people communicate openly and honestly
in a spirit of compassion.

   There are fellowships (e.g., Sanctuary, Calvary Chapel, to name
a few) who welcome those on the cultural edge. I'm well aware that
in a lot of places, young and stylish Christians aren't welcome.
But it is also true that many ccm artists, managers, agents, and
concert sponsors, along with the rank-and-file "cool," don't give
much effort to building spiritual relationships with solidly
biblical churches. Artists may want the gig, but that may be all
they want!

   In 1992, many artists continue to play "lone ranger." Especially
in regard to their "ministry/profession/call it what you like."

   But we must face the fact that the contemporary Christian music
scene within itself does NOT constitute a biblical church. In most
cases it is merely a loose-knit group of people who relate to one
another on the basis of common tastes in art, finance, and the
communication of ideas for fun and profit. For the average ccm'er,
the friends, fellow musicians and industry people we relate to most
are simply not spiritual leaderspastors, Bible teachers, and
such. No pastor, no pastoral care.

   Evangelism, pastoring, teaching, baptism, celebrating the Lord's
Supper, and for that matter basic biblical principles of
discipleship, aren't really a part of what's done in much of the
"industry."

   God isn't automatically honored in the "biz" simply because
believers are in it. I can hear someone responding, "Yeah, but
neither is He honored in some of those dead, straight churches
where I've gone and been given the cold shoulder!" So why hassle
with committing yourself to a local church fellowship?

                       Reasons To Be Accountable

   Everyone sins. We all get tempted and struggle. But if you're
not confessing your faults (James 5.16) and receiving ministry
within a scriptural church setting, who is helping you find
restoration to God and His people? And if those around you don't
love you enough to ask how you're doingpointedly at
timeswhere's the accountability?

   All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching,   
for reproof, for correction, and for training in
   righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be   
proficient, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3.16, 17)

   Remember your leaders, those who spoke the Word of God to you; 
  consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their   
faith . . .  Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they    are
keeping watch over your souls and will give an account.    Let them
do this with joy and not with sighingfor that    would be
harmful to you (Heb. 13.7,17).

   We need God's appointed leaders to speak into our lives. Of
course, it takes time and effort to build a relationship of love
and trust. Especially with a spiritual leader/mentor with whom we
can share our greatest trials and temptations.

   In common disagreements between husbands and wives, band
members, etc., the input of a pastor can prove invaluable. One of
the chief reasons people fight and continue to harbor bitterness
toward one another is that they never asked for an impartial church
elder to mediate the dispute. One fulfillment of the Matthew 18
principle in taking "another along with you" could mean bringing
your pastor to help biblically confront the one who has sinned.

   If a member of the church sins against you, [other ancient   
authorities lack `against you'] go and point out the fault    when
the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you,    you have
regained that one. But if you are not listened to,    take one or
two others along with you, so that every word may    be confirmed
by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the    member refuses
to listen to them, tell it to the church; and    if the offender
refuses to listen even to the church, let such    a one be to you
as a Gentile and a tax collector (Matt.
   18.15-17).

                         Authority Gone Wrong

   What if you are abused, clearly and biblically wronged while in
an accountable relationship?

   Peter states, "In the same way, you  who are younger must accept
the authority of the elders. And ALL of you must clothe yourselves
with humility in your dealings with one another, for `God opposes
the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' " (1 Pet. 5.5)

   "All of you" means leaders as well as those under their care. If
you believe you have been wronged by someone you are submitted to
apply Matthew 18. If someone in church leadership is involved in
more serious areas of ongoing sin (immorality, financial scams,
false doctrine for example), Paul clearly directs the actions of
the church: "Never accept any accusation against an elder except on
the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in
sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest also may
stand in fear" (1 Tim. 5.19,20).

   There is no question that everyone will have to give an account
for his/her own life. If not now, certainly before the throne of
God. We can never claim, "I just obeyed the direction of my
leader(s). I'm not personally responsible." If we violated the
clear teaching of God's Word, we sinned. This is where careful
Bible study, and humbly questioning those we are in an accountable
relationship with is essential. I am NOT suggesting blind,
unbiblical obedience to leadership. Nor am I condoning petty
accusations against godly leaders.

   While reconciliation to God and His Church is the ultimate aim,
reconciliation never happens without confrontation. One of the
greatest lessons to be learned from this issue of Cornerstone is
that those aware of misconduct must biblically confront.

                          In the Land of Ccm

   Finally, I would like to offer a few comments for those planning
a Christian outreach of some sort. Get references. We now have
telephones, fax machines, and mail services. Why don't more of
those promoting a Christian outreach contact folks they respect and
ask a couple of hard questions relating to the current morality and
general attitude of a speaker, artist, or group BEFORE they invite
them in? Frankly, how they were doing spiritually last year may not
mean much this year.

   When few questions are asked, and when well-meaning promoters
accept book and record company sales figures, coupled with
management/agency p.r. in the place of scriptural recommendations,
there is great potential for a continuum of circuit-riding sin. The
New Testament pattern was for traveling ministerseven Paulto
produce letters of recommendation from respected church leaders or
to be accompanied by known and respected "elder brothers."

   Ask what church a given writer/speaker/musician/etc. is
accountable to. Contact that fellowship and don't bring the artist
in until you're satisfied that they really have a genuine
relationship with that church. If they only show up for regular
service six times a year, forget about them being answerable to
anyone on any real level. Entering into "ministry" with them may in
reality mean "entering into another man's sin." Further, if they
aren't plugged into a strong church, how can they ever receive
loving, scriptural church discipline if needed?

   Radical? So are the wages of sin.

   I have a novel idea. Why not try biblically honest, accountable
living? I believe it is the single most practical key to
maintaining spiritual integrity. In fact, I challenge anyone to
scripturally explain how Christians can get along without it.









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