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Selling Satan: The Evangelical Media and the Mike Warnke Scandal
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by Mike Hertenstein and Jon Trott
ISBN 0-940-895-07-2
$11.50 |
The 1992 Cornerstone magazine exposé
of popular Christian comedian and purported "ex-satanic High Priest" Mike
Warnke rocked the Evangelical world, especially the Evangelical media
world. In this book-length expansion of the
original exposé, authors Mike Hertenstein and Jon Trott explore
in depth both the background of the world in which Mike Warnke broadcast
his "testimony," and also the reaction of that world to the news that
his fantastic story was a deception. Selling Satan also includes
a foreword by Dr. William Backus; an afterword, "Truth and Consequences:
Exposing Sin in the Church," by Bob and Gretchen Passantino; and an exclusive
interview by the authors with notorious Satanist Anton LaVey.
"Doggedly determined to get at the truth, two reporters show how it's done.
For Mike Warnke, it's a not-so-funny day of reckoning, his real past a denial
of what he's told millions. Here's a wake-up call for those in evangelical
music and publishing who periodically plop frauds and unverified tall tales
on the Christian public: it's high-time marketing takes a backseat to
biblical priorities and common decency. A vote of thanks to Jon Trott and
Mike Hertenstein."
—Edward E. Plowman, author and veteran journalist
"How refreshing to see Christians trying to clean up their own very
messy house . . . it is a model of the way in which outlandish claims, such as
Warnke's, should be investigated."
—Gordon Stein, the American Rationalist
"Does it really matter that Warnke's testimony was false, given all the
people he ministered to in the past 20 years? The answer should be obvious.
The fact that it apparently was not—to so many for so long—shows
why truth-telling, such as the kind performed by Hertenstein and Trott, is so
rare, and so needed."
—Ken Sidey, Christianity Today
Selling Satan will be to religious jouirnalism what Silent
Spring or All the President's Men were to mainstream publishing.
With the release of this one book, the age of accountability dawns in
Christian communications."
—Bob Darden, Gospel Music Editor, Billboard; editor, The Door
"Selling Satan is a journalistic tour de force. Jon Trott and Mike
Hertenstein reveal a man with a large and influential following whose
duplicitous and mendacious stories of having been a satanic high priest have
in part engendered the current popular satanic scare. Selling Satan
deserves a wide readership for its well-written, insightful tale of
demagoguery. This is first-rate journalism.
—Robert Hicks, Author of In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult
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