Comedian says he exaggerated role as Satanist.
Christian comedian Mike Warnke, who was the focus of intense media scrutiny last year for his use of money and his link to Satan worship, has recently issued a 32-page document in which he admits wrongdoing and misjudgment.
The statement was issued following an inquiry by Warnke’s newly formed pastoral review board. Warnke, who last fall called his critics Satanists (CT, Nov. 9, 1992, p. 49), asks for forgiveness in the document. “I am guilty of embellishment and exaggeration on my recordings and in my concerts,” Warnke writes, “not in an attempt to deceive but to entertain.
“I am a comedian. Exaggeration is part of what I and every other comedian do … [but] this does not excuse me from my responsibility as a minister of the gospel.
“I confess to the previous ungodliness of my personal life, to my multiple divorces, and unwise decisions,” the statement reads. “I can offer no excuse. I can only ask for forgiveness. I have been a failure as a husband, a father and a friend, there is nothing that I regret more.”
Warnke says he believes God has forgiven him and set his feet, “once again, on the path of service for his kingdom. I know that it is his will that I go on.”
Review board oversight
The findings of Warnke’s review board focused on allegations detailed in a 1992 Cornerstone magazine article. Warnke helped pick the review board, composed of Louisville, Kentucky, attorney Frank James and four pastors: Ronald Fellemende and Robert Hale of Lexington, Kentucky; Richard Morgan of Jamestown, Kentucky; and James Kraft of Santa Cruz, California. The board called last July’s article “less than fair in representing the truth and that some editorial bias slanted the reporting of the facts behind the story.”
According to Kraft, Warnke’s former pastor, the board’s purpose is to restore the popular concert and video Warnke Ministries to what it was before the Cornerstone article. Kraft, who has been friends with Warnke for more than 20 years, says Christian journalists are to blame for Warnke’s troubles. When the story broke, asserts Kraft, they “should have come running to Mike’s aid, not his execution.”
On April 5, Word Records announced it has been encouraged by Warnke’s “courageous” steps in submitting to a disciplining body. However, Word has decided to drop him from its roster, terminating an 18-year relationship.
In addition, review board member Frank James says Warnke will not continue an appeal of the IRS revocation of his nonprofit status because of the cost of litigation. Last July, after the IRS action, Warnke attorney Michael Conover said the revocation of the ministry’s tax-exempt status might be a blessing in disguise. Conover said, “Mike becomes a company again.”
Recommendations
Among the review board’s 15 recommendations are that the Warnke Ministries corporate board be composed of members who have never had a family relationship with Warnke.
According to Kentucky’s secretary of state, the Mercy Corporation, which is a part of Warnke Ministries, was formed on March 23 to handle the responsibilities of marketing Warnke products. It lists David Leibundguth, the husband of ministry director Rose Warnke—the third of Warnke’s four wives—as a board member. Other board members include Carol Conover, wife of Warnke Ministries attorney Michael Conover. In early April, the secretary of state’s office said it had not received any requests from Warnke to alter the board of directors.
In January, the review board advised Warnke Ministries to make application to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).
Additionally, Warnke himself, in his statement, mentions that he has taken steps to ensure that he is never again without a system of checks and balances. He says he has become a part of the nondenominational Family of God Fellowship in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, “submitting myself in love to the brothers and sisters of that body.”
Kraft says, “I really think that Mike is involved in a fellowship of sorts, in his own ministry offices. I know he holds services there and they pray together. He’s very sincere before God.”
Warnke also has had conflicting comments on his book The Satan Seller. Initially, he says, he had “rejected the manuscript because of inaccuracies and problems with details.” But in his recent statement, Warnke says, “I stand on my testimony of former satanic involvement.… It was never meant to be a blow by blow academic description of every facet and fact of my life.”
Warnke also says his financial records are “scrutinized by an independent outside firm of certified public accountants,” but the review board’s recommendations ask for an independent certified public accountant to become involved in regular ministry audits. Kraft explains that, even though Warnke had an accountant working with him, the accountant was not independent enough to suit board members.
By Perucci Ferraiuolo.
