From: morgan7@carina.unm.edu (christopher c lewisair)
Subject: The Warnke Debate
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 19:13:44 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Dear fellow Christians,

I was very sad to see that all the accusations I have heard about Mike Warnke 
over since I have become a Christian might be true. If anyone wants to check
these out, the Humanist magazine (not exactly pro-Chrisian, and blasphemous)
had an article a few years back on Satanism where a claim was made that
Warnke had refused to name names or give the meeting places of the Satanic
groups he knew about to the California State Police, who very
urgently wanted to know all they could about it.

I also would like to address a few issues about Satanism/Witchcraft that 
were brought up in the posts on this group:

I very much feel that all the hoopla about these 2 groups doing sacrifices
and plotting the death of Christianity is just a re-vamping of the 
anti-Jewish conspiracy theories that have been floating around our churches
since the 2nd century. Most of the tend to give a fantastic account of
what the allegedly conspiratorial group is trying to do to destroy Christ's
body, complete with stories of supernatural powers and revelations
of plots that link the group to everything from interest rate increases
and plagues (for example, Kenneth Hagin's claiming that AIDS will increase
until we start formally executing witches and satanists in our society).
All these conspiracy theories have several things in common:

1. The alleged group has its hand everywhere, and if you're not against the
group you're therefore a supporter of it.
2. Testimonies by ex-members of the group, usually new Christians, who
give bizarre accounts of what is happening within the group(like the
blood libel accusation's being supported by Jewish converts) and these
testimonies used as a ploy to further support the aims of the persons 
supporting the accusation.
3. Little or no evidence of the plan's actual existence, or the problems
being linked in reality to the group. The excuse is then given that the reason
that there is no evidence is because the group is so powerful and that
we are so blind to this power, that we cannot possibly recognize it or overcome
it without totally believing in the conspiracy, to help guide us away from
possible deception.

About a year ago, I had a friend who was a witch. Although I don't agree
with anything he had to say about theology or his supposed "powers",
I do think that they are harmless. They are very concerned with
hurting other people and completly oppose any kind of offering to their
gods that is the result of pain or force. They also are pretty open to
allowing anyone , even born-again Christians, to watch their meetings
to verify this.

Most of these people who are witches have a number of simple reasons for being
witches. They usually come from VERY devoutly religious backgrounds, are
usually very emotionally and somewhat physically and sexually abused by their
parents. They have rejected Christianity due to the painful childhoods,
and wanting to continue in some sort of spiritual channel. Their devotion
to this silly religion usually does not last too long, at most a few years.
And they welcome proselytizing from BAC's, I think because it proves to
them that they are right or "safe from Christian influences.
These religions come about usually in times of great social upheaval,like
what is going on now, and usually disappear once the Church gets its act
together and eventually incorporates them back in.


I think Mr. Warnke's ministry played on the fears of people who very much 
want to believe that the end is coming, but that we can somehow avert
destruction by eliminating these other religions(a good idea)
and substituting it with his own version of Christianity. A person
who is a good example of how someone can manipulate Christians into beliving
the end is coming with no real evidence of it happening was David Miller
of upstate New York, who in the early part of the 19th century had well
over 200K followers who believed the end was coming . After nearly a dozen
or so failed predictions, the largest group of his followers broke away
and formed the Seventh Day Adventists, who now number 7 million and
still believe the end is right around the corner. Paranoia, fear, and 
simplistic answers to complex problems seem to be the trademark of these people,
along with an obsssession with supernatural powers.

I think Mr. Warnke was lying all this time, and I also fail to see how
his ministry and testimony could be substantiated by quotes from people
like Hal Lindsey, who predicted that the beast was the Soveit Union,
shortly before it fell apart. He's not exactly a truthful prerson, either.
Warnke's release also had a quote from a person saying that he hated 
church hypocrisy. Well, Mr.Warnke, you should remove the hypocrisy from your
own life and stop blaming other people for your own marital infidelity
(like your second wife) before you set yourself up as a moral judge.

It's people like Warnke that Paul was writing about when he made that statement
about God's name being blasphemed among the gentiles.


Yours in Christ,

Christopher Lewis

Newsgroups: rec.music.christian