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Friendly Fire: A Recovery Guide for Believers Battered by Religion
The Christian Landscape is littered with the bodies of believers who are victims of "friendly fire": the legalistic, judgmental, or negativity critical words or actions of other believers. Friendly Fire is Mike Warnke's survival guide for believers battered by the religious among us. He offers encouragement and hope for the Church's "walking wounded" in their journey toward healing, restoration, and wholeness. No matter what has happened, no believer is too far gone to come back. God stands ready and willing to heal and restore. With warmth, humor, and insight gained from his own personal experiences, the author provides a soothing balm for believers nursing the wounds inflicted by "friendly fire."
174 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 2002
2 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Mike Warnke
8 books3 followersMichael Alfred "Mike" Warnke is an American Christian evangelist and comedian who was exposed in 1992 for inventing stories of his alleged past as a Satanist. Before being debunked, he was viewed as an "expert" on Satanism in the 1980s.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 4, 2021
I found this book troubling. Mike Warnke's ministry, which had been quite successful in the 1980s, crumbled in the early 90s when Evangelical magazine Cornerstone exposed his story of having been a former Satanic high priest as a fraud. Written ten years later, Warnke's aim in this book is to use his experience to offer advice and encouragement to anyone who has been shunned by their church, either because of overreactions to their mistakes, or because they're genuinely innocent victims of others' judgmental attitudes.
I think that for the intended audience, there could be some useful material here. Warnke has a friendly, easy-to-understand writing style, and I can see how someone who, say, got kicked out of their church for getting divorced would benefit from his reassurance that this doesn't mean that *God* has stopped loving them.
The problem is that Warnke himself has never really come clean about his wrongdoings. He continues to maintain that his ridiculous Satanism story was true. Readers coming to this book with no knowledge of the background would be led to believe that Cornerstone's expose had itself been debunked, and that's not true. Warnke's story contained numerous (major) impossibilities, and the magazine conducted extensive interviews to gather evidence. He has never given a meaningful explanation of how his story could possibly be true despite these impossibilities, and so I can only conclude that he was lying in the 70s and 80s, and continues to lie now. (Here, he states several times that he was advised not to address the accusations at all, because doing so would somehow prevent him from testifying about Jesus. I fail to see how clearing the air would present such an obstacle, but okay.)
He does admit to some other problems here: he says that he was overly focused on fame instead of on authentic preaching, and that he was at fault in the dissolution of his three previous marriages. But even there, he avoids admitting to anything serious. He comes off here as an enthusiastic preacher who got too accustomed to the spotlight, when the reality is that he and his then-wife used donations made in good faith to splurge on luxuries. He comes off as an immature husband who was unable to keep his marriages together when the reality was that he had numerous affairs, falsely accused his first wife of cheating, and (allegedly) beat his second wife.
What I find most appalling about all of this is that Mike Warnke didn't only lie to his coreligionists. He also worked as a consultant with police on cases supposedly involving Satanic crime, and appeared as an expert of numerous talk shows about the subject. While I don't think he was malevolent, by going out in public and peddling his lie, he egged on false accusations against innocent people. He does have some moral responsibility for the suffering of those who had their children taken from them or spent time in prison over allegations that would have been at home in Salem.
One of the major themes of this book is that judgment often precludes compassion: judgmental people are quick to throw others under the bus, but slow to offer them meaningful help for their problems. In other words, his accusers' accusations are unfair because they've done nothing but criticize him, without offering him advice on how to do better. With that in mind, I offer some thoughts on what Mike Warnke needs to do to resolve this mess:
1. He needs to read Cornerstone's article in full (if he hasn't -- I can't really tell if he has) and respond point by point to the evidence against him, detailing what in his account was an outright lie, what was an exaggeration, and what was true. No, this won't take his entire life, nor will it prevent him from conducting his ministry.
2. He needs to issue a public apology for his part in fueling the Satanic Panic, and he needs to issue private apologies to any individual who was falsely accused because of his actions.
3. He needs to make amends to the people he's hurt (ex. helping to pay for therapy costs for the falsely accused), if they want them.
4. He needs to issue a public apology to those who trusted him with their money in the belief that it was being used to help abused children.
I can't imagine anything less compassionate than enabling Mike Warnke's lies. I am sure that God loves him. But I imagine God would be more proud of him if he told the truth.
I think that for the intended audience, there could be some useful material here. Warnke has a friendly, easy-to-understand writing style, and I can see how someone who, say, got kicked out of their church for getting divorced would benefit from his reassurance that this doesn't mean that *God* has stopped loving them.
The problem is that Warnke himself has never really come clean about his wrongdoings. He continues to maintain that his ridiculous Satanism story was true. Readers coming to this book with no knowledge of the background would be led to believe that Cornerstone's expose had itself been debunked, and that's not true. Warnke's story contained numerous (major) impossibilities, and the magazine conducted extensive interviews to gather evidence. He has never given a meaningful explanation of how his story could possibly be true despite these impossibilities, and so I can only conclude that he was lying in the 70s and 80s, and continues to lie now. (Here, he states several times that he was advised not to address the accusations at all, because doing so would somehow prevent him from testifying about Jesus. I fail to see how clearing the air would present such an obstacle, but okay.)
He does admit to some other problems here: he says that he was overly focused on fame instead of on authentic preaching, and that he was at fault in the dissolution of his three previous marriages. But even there, he avoids admitting to anything serious. He comes off here as an enthusiastic preacher who got too accustomed to the spotlight, when the reality is that he and his then-wife used donations made in good faith to splurge on luxuries. He comes off as an immature husband who was unable to keep his marriages together when the reality was that he had numerous affairs, falsely accused his first wife of cheating, and (allegedly) beat his second wife.
What I find most appalling about all of this is that Mike Warnke didn't only lie to his coreligionists. He also worked as a consultant with police on cases supposedly involving Satanic crime, and appeared as an expert of numerous talk shows about the subject. While I don't think he was malevolent, by going out in public and peddling his lie, he egged on false accusations against innocent people. He does have some moral responsibility for the suffering of those who had their children taken from them or spent time in prison over allegations that would have been at home in Salem.
One of the major themes of this book is that judgment often precludes compassion: judgmental people are quick to throw others under the bus, but slow to offer them meaningful help for their problems. In other words, his accusers' accusations are unfair because they've done nothing but criticize him, without offering him advice on how to do better. With that in mind, I offer some thoughts on what Mike Warnke needs to do to resolve this mess:
1. He needs to read Cornerstone's article in full (if he hasn't -- I can't really tell if he has) and respond point by point to the evidence against him, detailing what in his account was an outright lie, what was an exaggeration, and what was true. No, this won't take his entire life, nor will it prevent him from conducting his ministry.
2. He needs to issue a public apology for his part in fueling the Satanic Panic, and he needs to issue private apologies to any individual who was falsely accused because of his actions.
3. He needs to make amends to the people he's hurt (ex. helping to pay for therapy costs for the falsely accused), if they want them.
4. He needs to issue a public apology to those who trusted him with their money in the belief that it was being used to help abused children.
I can't imagine anything less compassionate than enabling Mike Warnke's lies. I am sure that God loves him. But I imagine God would be more proud of him if he told the truth.
May 17, 2013
There are also a ton of people who are driven away from the faith by the lies and hypocrisy of the wolves in sheepskin clothing who lie in order to steal their money, and to gain fame.
November 9, 2024
You have to know about Mike Warnke before reading this book. He is so arrogant and self-centered that he assumes you know all about him before you picked this book up. So, here's the short version of why I picked this book up:
Now, I was raised a Born Again Christian, and sent to a strict Christian school. I wanted a horse -- got beaten up by Christianity instead. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Mike Warnke was considered a hero in my church and school. My family went to one of his concerts, where he was genuinely funny. We all gave him a standing O.
He claimed he was a former Satanist priest, and former Vietnam Vet. He was considered one of the nation's leading experts on Satanism. He was one of the leading instigatators of the Satanic Panic.
Fast forward to 1992. I'd left Christianity then, and have been trying to fix the damage the damn religion did to me ever since. In that year, a Christian magazine did a fact-finding mission on Mike Warnke's past. They discovered that he'd lied about almost everything.
Meanwhile, Warnke had been raking in millions of tax-free dollars a year with Warnke Ministries. In this book, he constantly referred to himself as the "number one Christian comedian in America."
That's because he was the ONLY Christian comedian in America.
Anyway, when the article was published, Warnke lost nearly everything, including the IRS tax-exempt status.
Published ten years after the revealing article, I wondered if Warnke would apologize.
He doesn't. He only apologizes for being funny, and placing being funny ahead of preaching the Gospel. He also said he "exaggerated" at times.
The perfect non-apology apology.
People had their lives completely ruined by the Satanic Panic. People were falsely accused of murder and did serious jail time for crimes they never committed. Millions of dollars were wasted in trying to find Satanic covens that never existed.
And he just "exaggerated".
Fuck you, Mike Warnke.
The book's publishers make a ridiculous announcement on the copyright page. They say they refuse to capilitalize Satan or the Devil because "we choose not to acknowledge him". And yet that's exactly what they're doing. They are dumb enough to believe in a super powerful Satan, and yet think that changing the name to lower case is somehow going to matter? How fucked up do you have to be before you finally are thrown into a mental institution?
Supposedly, this book is about recovering from unwarranted attacks from other Christians. It's not. It is a good look at some of the core beliefs of the religious right, including a hatred of homosexuality. It also states that worry, and anything similar, are sins.
But don't believe anything Warnke writes about himself in this book, because he's a proven liar. That he was able to recover, gain tax-free riches again, shows you how fucked up America is, let alone the religious right.
Now, I was raised a Born Again Christian, and sent to a strict Christian school. I wanted a horse -- got beaten up by Christianity instead. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Mike Warnke was considered a hero in my church and school. My family went to one of his concerts, where he was genuinely funny. We all gave him a standing O.
He claimed he was a former Satanist priest, and former Vietnam Vet. He was considered one of the nation's leading experts on Satanism. He was one of the leading instigatators of the Satanic Panic.
Fast forward to 1992. I'd left Christianity then, and have been trying to fix the damage the damn religion did to me ever since. In that year, a Christian magazine did a fact-finding mission on Mike Warnke's past. They discovered that he'd lied about almost everything.
Meanwhile, Warnke had been raking in millions of tax-free dollars a year with Warnke Ministries. In this book, he constantly referred to himself as the "number one Christian comedian in America."
That's because he was the ONLY Christian comedian in America.
Anyway, when the article was published, Warnke lost nearly everything, including the IRS tax-exempt status.
Published ten years after the revealing article, I wondered if Warnke would apologize.
He doesn't. He only apologizes for being funny, and placing being funny ahead of preaching the Gospel. He also said he "exaggerated" at times.
The perfect non-apology apology.
People had their lives completely ruined by the Satanic Panic. People were falsely accused of murder and did serious jail time for crimes they never committed. Millions of dollars were wasted in trying to find Satanic covens that never existed.
And he just "exaggerated".
Fuck you, Mike Warnke.
The book's publishers make a ridiculous announcement on the copyright page. They say they refuse to capilitalize Satan or the Devil because "we choose not to acknowledge him". And yet that's exactly what they're doing. They are dumb enough to believe in a super powerful Satan, and yet think that changing the name to lower case is somehow going to matter? How fucked up do you have to be before you finally are thrown into a mental institution?
Supposedly, this book is about recovering from unwarranted attacks from other Christians. It's not. It is a good look at some of the core beliefs of the religious right, including a hatred of homosexuality. It also states that worry, and anything similar, are sins.
But don't believe anything Warnke writes about himself in this book, because he's a proven liar. That he was able to recover, gain tax-free riches again, shows you how fucked up America is, let alone the religious right.
April 9, 2018
Restoration and Health
Mike Warnke details his fall from ministry and how the Lord restored him, his marriage and his ministry. It is a quick read and one that every Christian can benefit from.
Mike Warnke details his fall from ministry and how the Lord restored him, his marriage and his ministry. It is a quick read and one that every Christian can benefit from.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews