Warnke Ministries Hurt by Expose

Christian Research Journal, Fall 1992

In 1972 Mike Warnke caused a sensation with his book The Satan Seller, the compelling story of how he surrendered his life to Jesus after a bloody stint as a satanic high priest. The book became a nonfiction best seller, dramatically influencing popular views of modern Satanism -- and launching Warnke's lucrative career as a nationally known author, comedian, and authority on the occult.

Warnke's amazing tale went all but unchallenged until July of this year, when the respected evangelical magazine Cornerstone published "Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke." According to authors Jon Trott and Mike Hertenstein, an extensive, two-year investigation of Warnke's background revealed "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 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 lengthy and heavily documented article also claims that Warnke has lied about his educational achievements and accuses him of substance abuse, multiple extramarital affairs, financial improprieties, and participation in pagan rituals while a Christian.

In the wake of Cornerstone's call for Warnke to repent and withdraw from public ministry, the entertainer met for ten days with executives from his recording company to review the charges. On July 9 Word, Inc. president Roland Lundy announced the firm's intention to stand by Warnke, who issued a 12-page statement on July 15 in which he denied Cornerstone's allegations, yet presented no concrete evidence to refute them. (Warnke's first wife, Sue, and several prominent Christians were among others who released statements on the entertainer's behalf, but none offered conclusive proof to substantiate his story.)

Among those who found Warnke's response unsatisfactory was Tim Landis, organizer of the annual "Creation" Christian music festival. In a forceful July 16 letter to Lundy, Landis wrote: "In the event Mike Warnke refuses to answer each charge individually, the verdict is clear. Mike Warnke is a fraud and Word Records must weigh the potential legal liability of 'knowingly' distributing misrepresented materials."

Then, on August 6 Word suspended its business relationship with Warnke following a July 29 report in the Lexington, Kentucky Herald-Leader. The Herald-Leader stated that the IRS revoked Warnke Ministries' tax-exempt status in the fall of 1991 for improperly giving the entertainer and his family "too much money and too many benefits." The front-page story paints an extremely negative picture of the organization's finances and ethics, claiming that it "pays [Warnke] and his family nearly $1 million in salary and has bought them expensive Cadillacs and a $43,000 Mercedes-Benz roadster" while doing little or nothing to help alleged victims of Satanism.

In conversations with the JOURNAL in October, Rose Warnke Liebundguth—another of the entertainer's former wives and an officer of Warnke Ministries—claimed that the IRS had not actually revoked the organization's 501(c) (3) non-profit status, but had merely recommended that such action be taken (based on what she called "six minor infractions") and suspended tax exemptions on donations of $1,000 and above. The ministry has appealed the action to U.S. Tax Court.

Although at least two reports published after the Cornerstone expose have quoted Warnke as telling audiences that his organization would soon close, Liebundguth told the JOURNAL that "the ministry has no plans to shut down."

She further explained that she and Warnke are assembling a four-man "pastoral board" to review the ministry's practices and prepare further responses to charges against the entertainer. Once the board issues a public statement, she said, Mike Warnke will release yet another response to Cornerstone's charges. Apparently Warnke intends to use "a platform that would be very visible"—perhaps the Trinity Broadcast Network—to state his case.

Liebundguth told the JOURNAL that she and Warnke see the workings of a far-reaching satanic cult behind the recent attacks on their credibility—a cult involving Cornerstone publisher Jesus People USA, apologists Robert and Gretchen Passantino of Answers in Action, and various unnamed conspirators bent on destroying any and all ministries that aid victims of satanic ritual abuse (e.g., those of Bob Larson, Johanna Michaelson, and Lauren Stratford).

But according to a reporter for Christianity Today, Liebundguth and Warnke clearly identified the Christian Research Institute as part of the supposed conspiracy more than once during a tape-recorded interview for the magazine's November 9 issue. When questioned by the JOURNAL, Liebundguth first denied ever making such an allegation, then backtracked, saying: "Well, if I did, I didn't mean it."

Meanwhile, Cornerstone stands by its original story, and have printed a followup report in its October issue.

UPDATE - 2008

Mike Warnke—who has not yet admitted to the many false claims he made about his years as a high priest leader in the Satanic underworld—continues in "Christian ministry." In fact, he has a new website wherein he still claims to have been "a satanist high priest." Mike Warnke's story, although he stands by it, continues to be one of the best documented fabrications known throughout the modern Christian church. His many tale tales include the following (just a small sampling):

WARNKE: Claimed to have not only met mass murderer Charles Manson at a satanic rally in late 1965 (“It’s Happening Now,” insert, San Diego Evening Tribune, Jan. 17, 1972), but also spent time with Manson in 1966.
FACT: Charles Manson was in prison in late 1965, serving a six year sentence for forging a U.S. Treasury check he'd stolen from a mailbox. he wasn't released until march 1967 (see "Why the Dates Don't Work," by Trott and Hertenstein)

WARNKE: Claimed that during his college days (c. Sept. 13, 1965 - June 2, 1966), he participated in the Alabama "Freedom Rides" with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (October 1976 issue of Harmony magazine).
FACT: The Freedom Rides were in 1961, four years before Warnke started college (see "Why the Dates Don't Work," by Trott and Hertenstein)

WARNKE: Claimed to be part of a Satanic Brotherhood in college (c. Sept. 13, 1965 - June 2, 1966)—a Satanist who wore black pants, a freaky shirt, bleached white hair down to his waist, and six-inch fingernails painted black!
FACT: Warnke was living at that time with a college buddy, Greg Gilbert, who today is an English college professor. According to Gilbert and several otehr eyewitnesses who knew Warnke personally, Warnke was in no Satanic Brotherhood and was simply an average guy. Friends remember him as a thin and geek-like, with short hair and thick glasses (see photo below of Warnke, taken April 30, 1966, when he supposedly had waist-length white hair, six-inch fingernails,and fifteen hundred followers).

WARNKE: "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" (Mike Warnke Alive! album).
FACT: 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 hair—his hair was short, short, short! . . . 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. (see Selling Satan: The Tragic Story of Mike Warnke).

WARNKE: Claimed to have earned several higher education degrees: two bachelor's degrees ("B.S. biblical studies, B.S. Christian education"); two master's degrees (at least one of which he has publicly noted as an "M.S. Christian Education"); and a Doctor of Divinity from "Antioch University."
FACT: Warnke has only one "bachelor's degree" (in counseling) from a family-run Bible school in Northern California called Valley Christian University (also known as Assumption College), which offers degrees by correspondence (non-accredited). No records in any legitimate, accredited shool, lists Mike Warnke as having graduated with any degree. There is only one existing "Antioch University," a school based inYellow Springs, Ohio, and branches in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. All of them deny that Warnke was ever a student, and none of them grant doctorates (see "Higher Education," by Trott and Hertenstein).

Thus, the story of Mike Warnke lives on.