Customer Reviews

The Satan Seller

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I was in bible college in the mid-80's to early 90's and saw 4 live Warnke performances during those years. I also read this book as a teenager, and believed every word. After all, the "right" people endorsed it; how could they be wrong?

But they were. As so many others have mentioned, you really need to visit the Cornerstone Magazine web site and read their articles. But even more damning than that is Warnke's response to their expose - or lack of a response, that is. At no point does he either retract, or, conversely, seek to prove his story. He just moans about "friendly fire."

If you contact Warnke's "ministry" or the church that recently ordained him, the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (www.theceec.org), they will refer you to the findings of a "commission of godly men" that investigated Warnke after the scandal broke. I have read their findings, and let's just say that no crook ever got off easier. At no point did this commission investigate Warnke's lies or demand that he either put up or shut up. They basically patted him on the head and said "there, there, Mikey, you've been a bad boy, so please behave from now on." As far as I'm concerned these "godly men" are nothing more than Mike's cronies trying to cover for him.

It's a sad, sad joke that no one is laughing about - except Satan.

I remember reading this book 30 years ago, right on the heels of the nationwide release of the movie, "The Exorcist." I was in a charismatic bible group in Stillwater, Oklahoma. We all got caught up in the "possession" craze that swept charismatic circles that year. Mr. Mike Warnke visited the campus of Oklahoma State University that Spring, sponsored by our little group. He was such a big hero to us all. I confess, I was taken in by his lies. It was heartbreaking to learn it was all a charade, when I read the truth about Mike Warnke in the book, "Selling Satan," which was published 20 years after "The Satan Seller."

Mike behaved a great deal more devilishly AFTER his alleged conversion to Christianity in 1966. He was never a Satanist or drug dealer in Southern California in the 1960's. However, he WAS a womanizer, cheating on his first 3 wives. I am not so much disappointed that Mike was never a devil worshipper as I am that he was, and is, an inveterate liar and opportunist. His hysteria contributed to the atmosphere that led to the false accusations about alleged Satanic ritual abuse in the 1980's and 1990's. Ever hear of the McMartin Preschool Trial?

This book, "The Satan Seller," is one lie after another. I would urge all who are interested in such things to read the expose', "Selling Satan," and also read the book, "Satanic Panic." They will lay to rest Mr. Warnke's exaggerations and falsehoods.

John Paul, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

I read this book just prior to the 1992 article by Cornerstone Magazine which exposed Warnke for the liar he is. His ministry may have touched many but my story is one that makes it all worthless. My best friend and I bought and read this book together, he was not and continues to not be a Christian. We had seen signs of occult activity in the hills surrounding our Southern California neighborhood. We bought this book and read it in order to learn more. Several conversations with my friend saw him on the verge of accepting Christ, then the truth came out about Warnke. His opinion of Christians in general dropped through the floor. I was never able to have a significant conversation with him after that.

It is irresponsible for anyone to recommend this book without doing proper research for themselves and informing their friends about the facts.

I recently read this book, which had a tradition of being passed around from person to person as a joke. Warnke tries to mix neo-pagan witchcraft and Satanism in ways that don't make any sense to someone (like me) familiar with both. He attacks the use of ritual in Christian worship as being empty, yet at the end of the book he's engaging in his own brand of Christian voodoo - 'calling on the Blood' and such.

A 1992 expose in Cornerstone magazine blew the doors off this author's fictional past. Which is no surprise, having read his obviously fabricated autobiography.

I'm rating the book two stars, because it's not badly written.

I give this book one star because that's as low a rating as I can give it. I can't believe it's still in print more than ten years after Warnke was proven to be a hoax (see the book "Selling Satan").

I do not write as aSatanist, but as a Christian. Mike Warnke and his books were exposed by the Evangelical magazine Cornerstone. He is not the "ex-Satanist' he claims to be, and his account of that peculiar religion is badly misinformed.In fact, I suspect that the Warnkes, Larsons and Rebecca Browns of this world do far more to drive sensitive and intelligent people into the ranks of satanism than the collected writings of "doctor"Lavey. Too many men and women have read this drivel, then checked out what the Satanists have to actually say, and then concluded that Christians are liars , and that Satanism makes sense.

While there are many respectable Christian authors out there (Josh Harris, Max Lucado, et al.), Warnke isn't one of them...his book was first published @ a time when religious fervor was re-sweeping America, and in an effort to "ride the wave", a # of publishers sent tales like Warnke's to print w/minimal fact-checking (case in point: "Michael, Michael, Why Do You Hate Me?", the story of how "Rabbi" Michael Esses found God during a period of repeated tragedies, only to have it later revealed by his ex-wife that Esses was a known adulterer and NOT a rabbi). Is it any wonder that Warnke's old friends refused to sign an affidavit he gave them, in which they were to swear the events described in TSS were "absolutely true"?

JM, your arguments in favor of Warnke just don't hold water...if his past infidelities were the sole reason for the Cornerstone expose's credibility, and the arguments against him "unsubstansiated":

- Why did Warnke give no explanation for looking like a typical "square" of the 60s in a pic of him at a wedding w/ex-fiance Lois Eckenrod, during a time he claimed to have waist-length white hair and long black fingernails, as well as showing the physical ravages of his alleged drug/alcohol abuse?
- Why did everyone who knew Warnke during the time of his alleged Satanic involvement emphatically deny that he had involvement of any kind in such activities?
- Why was Warnke confirmed to have cheated the IRS out of past taxes when his fame and fortune were at their peak in the mid-80s?
- Warnke's former Satanic coven had over 1300 members, so wouldn't at least one have come out of the woodwork to confirm his story by now?
- Why did his former friends reveal him to have engaged in other deceptions (impersonating a priest, a Russian immigrant, and a Greek dancer) while in his teens? Once a liar...

And BD, can you tell me where in this review, or any other criticizing the book, that I or anyone else said anything about Warnke that was untrue? It seems to me like you're the one who's been "blinded", given your unwillingness to accept that Warnke isn't who he says he is. Besides, the ultimate damage to Warnke's reputation and career came not from the Cornerstone article, but by virtue of his silence...much like the hero in Chekov's "A Slander", he foolishly caused his own undoing.

As for the 1993 apology his remaining supporters allude to, it was half-hearted at best, vague in addressing his sins (no specific mention of his financial wrongdoings or infidelities, and still clinging to the "ex-Satanic high priest" claim) and tries to make it seem as though exaggerating his stories for dramatic purposes (which is to be expected from any author) was the major crime.

Re: his 2002 book "Friendly Fire", it's nothing but an attempt by Warnke to try to martyrize himself as being unjustly persecuted by fellow Christians by the apples-and-oranges linking of his treatment following the Cornerstone story w/those of genuine Christian persecution.

And as of this review, Warnke's website STILL touts the "ex-Satanic high priest" claim...if he wants to believe his own lies, so be it, but don't let him sucker you in the way he once did.

For someone who has spent years insulting intelligent people with his cartoonish depictions of other religions, Warnke is awfully stingy with his apologies. He only apologized after Cornerstone Magazine exposed him... He has only apologized to fundamentalist Christians, the same folks who've been sitting passively in his audience listening to his highly inflamatory monologues against other people's faiths. He has yet to apologize to the members of those religions that he has spent 20 years defaming, or to the thousands of intelligent former Christians who left the church in disgust over the Warnke and his ilk.

I am one of those who tired of seeing Warnke's and his imitators stupid and contradictory excuses for evangalism, got up from my pew, left the church and never went back. It's the dirty little secret the fundamentalists hate to talk about, but the explosive growth in nonChristian religions in America in recent years is largely fueled by decent people who were brought up Christian but got disgusted with the fundamentalists' reduction of Christianity to the level of tabloid sensationalism. When's Wanke going to apologize to us? When is he going to appear before the Wiccan community, humbly prostrate himself, and ask for their forgiveness for all the lies he's spread about them over the years?

And what about atonement? A persons sins need to be atoned for, not just forgiven. Where has Wanke openly worked to increase the church's level of skepticism of charlatans such as himself? What work has he done to promote interfaith dialogues between Christianity and the religions he has made a fortune slandering?

For years fundamentalist Christians have subjected the rest of us the One Bad Fact theory of other religions: if they could find (or invent) one bad fact about someone else's religion, that invalidated the whole religion and everything the followers of that religion had ever said or done. Why don't we see the same standard applied to Wanke? Or how about this, if we're supposed to forgive and tolerate Warnke, how about showing some tolerance of the nonChristian religions who have been the victims of his lies? Just how much hypocrasy can fundamentalists stomach? Don't answer that, Some Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.

Of all the hoaxes of this century Satanic ritual abuse is one of the biggest, and one of the most dangerous. There has been one known lynching, hundreds of false accusations and thousands of false memories planted into people's heads and thousands of families split up due to lies. Once again we hear about bands of thousands of Satanists who are ritually killing more people a year than the number of homicides and missing persons. Again an imaginary Satan religion is made up combining elements of religous Satanism (which is really a harmless religion), Neo-Paganism, ritual magic and old Satanic myths. And we have no evidence to back this up. This book is just another shallow attempt to revive centuries old blood libel myths so followers of religions that differ from the author's own views can be persecuted again, and if these people had their way we'd probably be burning them. For the truth about this kind of thing check out Satanic Panic by Jeffrey S. Victor and Satan's Silence by Debbie Nathan, and Mike Hertenstein has done a good job refuting Warnke's claims in Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke

Does anyone still believe in "Satanic" cults? Geez, that's so eighties.

For the real story on Warnke, see http://www.witchvox.com/whs/kerr_warnke1.html . Or, if you'd rather hear it from Warnke's fellow Christians, read Mike Hertenstein and Jon Trott's "Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke," also Jeffrey Victor's very good "Satanic Panic."