Newsgroups: rec.music.christian
Subject: Re: Mike Warnke Controversy in Cornerstone magasine
From: bdevilbi@uceng.UC.EDU (Brian Devilbiss)
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 22:45:20 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Cincinnati

I don't often post to this group (although I like most of the discussions),
but this topic is too hot to pass up. I too have read the Cornerstone article
and found it to be very convincing. As mentioned earlier, it is very well 
researched and well documented (there are about 170 footnotes at the end of
the article.) In an effort to get both sides of the story, I asked about
the controversy in a local Christian bookstore. They gave me a 30+ page 
statement from Warnke Ministries dated July 15, 1992. The statement included
a 12 page letter from Mike himself where he basically said the Cornerstone
article is full of errors. He unequivocally stated that all events described
in the Satan Sellar are exactly as described. He briefly talked about a few
of the pieces of evidence that Cornerstone presented, such as the April 1966
photograph of himself and an unidentified woman. Supposedly he had "waist 
length white hair" and "six inch fingernails" at this time in the Satan Sellar.
The picture shows otherwise. Most of his letter focused around Carolyn 
Alberty, his second wife, who he says supplied Cornerstone with all of the
"lies." He even goes so far as to call he "cold-hearted" and "temptress."
He blames Carolyn for the break up of his first marriage to Sue. Anyway,
he doesn't talk about the testimonies of his other 7 or 8 college and high
school friends, whose contributions to the Cornerstone article were most
convincing. The one thing that his friends all agreed upon was that he was
a great "storyteller" and would often stand by a story until one could no
longer argue with him. So it comes as no surprise that he would stand by
the Satan Sellar and everything in it. (It would have been a surprise if he
didn't!)

The remaining 20+ pages are written statements from Warnke's friends in his
ministry. They all say about the same thing, and they all stand behind Mike.
There is also a letter from Word, Inc. (Warnke's distributor) that says 
something to the effect of "after talking with Mike, we stand behind his
testimony." Of course, does a jury ask the alleged murderer if he did it and
then base their verdict on that alone?  Most noteworthy in the statement is
a notarized statement from Sue Warnke, Mike's first wife. According to Mike, 
Cornerstone made an unethical error by not interviewing her, who would have
been able to verify "60%" of the events in the Satan Seller. Sue's statement
did, in some ways, verify parts of Mike's story, but she admits that during
the course of the school year (1965-66), especially the spring, she "lost
track of" Mike. She also does not mention any of Mike's friends and their
testimonies about him. (Of course, she was in Campus Crusade so may not have
known Mike's friends.) Her statement was only about five pages, but she
mentions at one point that she was contacted by Cornerstone Magazine, but
refused an interview and referred them to Mike.

If I thought it would be helpful, I would post portions of his statement
but it is awfully long and, quite frankly, doesn't say much. The other five
or six letters from Warnke's supporters are all written by people who have
been associated with Warnke since his alleged time as a Satanic high priest.
Do they actually have more knowledge and "hard evidence" that you and I?
Probably not. They are only character witnesses.

Well, those are the highlights from the statement. If anyone wants a copy
of the whole statement, email me at bdevilbi@uceng.uc.edu and we'll try to
work something out. Otherwise, I hope this gave some insight into Warnke's
controversy. No doubt Warnke ministries needs prayers....

In Truth,

BLD

P.S. Read Romans 3:7-8 in regards to truthfulness and integrity.