#74 MIKE WARNKE ALIVE! by Mike Warnke (1976)

MIKE WARNKE ALIVE! by Mike Warnke (1976)
Myrrh Records (MSA-6561)

“Mike Warnke is a master story-teller.”

Penned by Nancy Honeytree, that statement began the liner notes for Mike Warnke Alive! She should’ve stopped right there. But she didn’t. The next sentence would, in hindsight, prove to be problematic:

“The stories he tells are true ones.”

Uh-oh.

Mike Warnke was a great story-teller. And he was a very funny comedian. What none of us knew at the time was that much of Mike’s personal testimony was reportedly fabricated out of whole cloth. Nancy Honeytree’s personal integrity is such that I don’t believe she would’ve given such a full-throated endorsement had she known. In those liner notes, she went on to say that Warnke was “one of those amazing people” who had “done almost everything,” and that “fact proves much more fascinating than fantasy.”

Yikes.

Before I delve into this particular album and the controversies surrounding Warnke’s career and ministry, I will acknowledge that this pick may be one of the most controversial on the entire list. First, there’s the 1992 Cornerstone magazine expose and the resulting fallout. There are those who will say that all Warnke recordings should be automatically barred from consideration.

Secondly, it’s a comedy album. Some folks would question whether a spoken-word album should be
considered, when there are deserving music albums that will, of necessity, be excluded. I’ll answer both objections.

There will be other albums on this list from artists who have been accused of lying. There will be albums on this blog from artists who have since acknowledged that they were full-on alcoholics during the time that some of their most beloved CCM albums were recorded. There will be records on this list by artists who have been accused of crooked business dealings. There will be other albums in this countdown by artists who have been accused of affairs, sexual sin, and multiple divorces. Heck, there will be several albums on this countdown from a man who has been publicly accused of cheating his friends, sleeping with his best friend's wife, abandoning a child that he fathered out of wedlock, and then refusing to acknowledge the kid, let alone support him. If lies, adultery, money and sexual sin were reasons to disqualify an artist from inclusion, we’d have a very difficult time finding a hundred records to talk about.

As for Mike Warnke Alive! being a comedy album…um, yes. Yes, it is. It was also a hugely popular, iconic album from a guy who had managed to hitch his wagon to Jesus Rock artists. He was at Explo '72, he was featured on the cover of Harmony magazine, and there was a demand for his testimony and his comedy at the same churches and coffeehouses that hosted Jesus Music concerts. Warnke successfully gravitated toward this new fraternity of musicians, prompting Tim Archer of The Archers to describe him as “the Chaplain of Gospel Rock” while addressing the crowd at Jesus ’73. Mike never sang a song. He never played an instrument. But he was basically the official comic of the Jesus Rock era. He paved the way for Steve Geyer, Paul Aldrich, Brad Stine, Bob Smiley and many others who would follow. Mike Warnke belongs on this list.

That said, I will admit that I’m somewhat conflicted. The reason is that while Mike Warnke Alive! is the most important album in Warnke’s lengthy discography, it consisted almost entirely of a personal testimony that has since been discredited. It is not lost on me that Warnke's primary accuser, Jon Trott, is a self-described "male feminist," Obama supporter and all-around liberal nut job. For Trott to have assumed the positions of judge, jury, and executioner is annoying to say the least, if not unscriptural.

But yeah, I'm conflicted. After all, my church hosted Mike Warnke for 2 services in the mid-90s -- after the scandal broke. Both evenings went great, and there was no extended push for offerings (like some have reported enduring back in the '80s). I met Mike and invited him to appear on my radio show. He graciously went with me to the Rock 101 studios at midnight on a Saturday night when he certainly didn't have to. He was friendly, charming, and completely hilarious, both on the air and behind the scenes.

And yet, I am conflicted.

The devil on one shoulder says, “It was a hugely consequential album.”

At that point, the angel on the other shoulder says, “Yeah, but most of it was a complete fairy tale.”

“ALL comedians exaggerate for comic effect.”

“Yeah, but this was purported to be the man’s testimony of how he became a Christian!”

“C’mon, nobody's perfect. Noah got drunk, Jacob lied, Moses murdered, and even David committed adultery.”

“Yeah, but Warnke never fully owned his mistakes, never showed proper contrition.”

At the end of the day, Mike Warnke Alive! was funny…it was effective…it was powerful. And so, it’s here on the list, whether you like it or not. And whether I like it or not!

I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow account of everything that is alleged to be false and every alleged sin from Mike’s personal life. All of that is readily available on the internet if you’ve got a few hours of free time.

Mike (R) in Vietnam in 1969

Here's what we think we know:

Michael Alfred Warnke was born in 1946. By the time he was twelve years old, both of his parents had died and young Mike was sent to live with two of his aunts in Sparta, Tennessee, and from there to his father's half-sister and her husband in San Bernardino, California. In June 1965, Warnke graduated from Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead, California. In the Fall of '65, Mike enrolled at San Bernardino Valley College but withdrew before graduating. On June 2, 1966, Warnke enlisted in the United States Navy. After graduating from boot camp on August 22, 1966, Warnke's assigned Military Occupational Specialty was as a Hospital Corpsman. In 1967, Warnke married Sue Studer. Together, they had two children. That's what we think we know for sure.

In 1969 Warnke met San Diego evangelist Morris Cerullo and reportedly convinced Cerullo that he had been heavily involved in satanism and the occult. Mike became a featured guest in Cerullo's evangelistic crusades. Warnke's speaking ability, natural charm, and sense of humor drew crowds. The satanic sensationalism, stand-up comedy, and Christian sermonizing was a winning combination. At Cerullo's urging, Warnke wrote a memoir called The Satan Seller. Released in 1973, the book became a Christian best-seller and made Warnke popular in some circles. But an incidental recording in the mid-70s would make him a household name.

The Adam's Apple in Fort Wayne, Indiana was an iconic Jesus Music coffeehouse. Known throughout the Midwest for its "Gospel Rock" concerts, the Adam's Apple played a part in helping artists like Petra, Honeytree and Phil Keaggy establish an audience. In 1975, an Adam's Apple concert featuring Keaggy and Honeytree was being recorded for a possible live album. Mike Warnke was on hand and was called upon to give his "testimony" between sets. Legend has it that Warnke's talk was "inadvertently" taped. That recording became the album Mike Warnke Alive!

"I think bein' saved is a gas!"

It was quickly apparent that this was not your father's Christian comedian. Warnke was very funny, but he had an edge. Mark Allen Powell in his Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music points out that while Mark Lowery is more from the Grady Nutt/Jerry Clower school, Mike Warnke had more in common with John Belushi and Sam Kinison. Powell also praised one thing that has never been in doubt: Warnke's raw talent.

"Warnke faced challenges that Belushi and Kinison never did. He had to be just as funny while working with tamer material and he had to be able to turn a corner in every performance that the secular comics never had to maneuver. He had to get serious at the end of the program, preach a sermon, and deliver an altar call. Could the others have done it? What if someone had told John Belushi in 1978, 'Do a performance with no jokes about sex, drugs or scatology--and no cuss words--but keep everyone howling for an hour and a half and then wind it all up with a deadly serious message that will have them promising to change the way they live.' Could he have done it? Viewed in such a light, Warnke's success is nothing short of phenomenal and his skill as a consummate performer can hardly be exaggerated."

Let's take a look at the album.

In Preacher Lessons and Cookie Cutters, Mike drops a couple of names that were very familiar to the Jesus people of the mid-'70s -- David Wilkerson and Nicky Cruz.

One of the many criticisms of Warnke by Jon Trott and Mike Hertenstein of Cornerstone magazine had to do with the album's second track, Tennessee Home and Blankety-Blank. The investigative "journalists" actually looked up one of Warnke's aunts and say that she denies he was a "foul-mouthed brat" during the time he stayed with them. Really? C'mon guys. That whole bit was clearly exaggerated and embellished for comic effect. And there's nothing wrong with that. The criticism leaves Trott & Hertenstein looking like uptight legalists with no sense of humor. Warnke also says during that bit that a woman "ran in the other room" and "got a 97 lb. Scofield Reference Bible off the TV."  I'm surprised they didn't take him to task because said Bible didn't actually weigh 97 pounds. Have you ever heard comedian Jerry Clower? Clower was a Christian. Do you think for one second that all those stories about Marcell Ledbetter and Uncle Versie were true? Of course not. Most of them were old jokes; Clower would simply plug in the names Ardel, Burnel, Raynel, W.L., Lanel, Odel, Marcel, Newgene, Claude, and Clovis. And don't forget Uncle Versie and Aunt Pat. No harm, no foul. But what if the material was a "testimony" that was being told in a deadly serious manner and was being shared as if it was a historical account of one's conversion? Yeah...that's different. We'll get to that a little later.

By the time Mike got to Catholics and Hell, the audience was really with him. And this is some funny stuff.

Some people say that Warnke is at his best when describing people from the Bible and recounting stories taken from Scripture. Bible Stories and Jonah is a great example. If he had just gone that route from the beginning, he could've saved himself some trouble down the road.

Dos and Don'ts is about grace, forgiveness, and the futility of legalism. "I figure if you spend your time doin' the do's, you ain't gonna have time to do the don'ts. And if you could, you wouldn't, so you can't, so you don't, so it's cool, right?"

The next track is titled The Occult, followed by Jesus Freaks and Skuzball. This is where we go off the rails. Because now Warnke is not just telling jokes, or embellishing Bible stories and funny memories from childhood. Here, he is relating detailed events that we are to assume are true. But they weren't.

"I'd had hepatitis four times from shooting up with dirty needles. I had scabs all over my face from shooting up crystal. I was a speed freak. I weighed 110 pounds soaking wet. My skin had turned yellow. My hair was falling out. My teeth were rotting out of my head. I'd been pistol-whipped five or six times. My jaw had been broken. My nose had been almost ripped off. I had a bullet hole in my right leg. Two bullet holes in my left leg." None of it true, according to college friends.

Of course, Warnke's skill and talent were still on full display. Whether talking about selling the "reds" to another student, being accosted by the kids from Campus Crusade for Christ, or the downside of getting high...the guy was just plain good at his craft. [Which is more than can be said for the designer of the cover. This was one of the worst album covers ever. The same dark, unappealing photograph is repeated on front and back, with a cheesy '70s font. It's terrible. But I digress.]

Side Two opens with Catholics and Heaven, during which Mike reveals that he believes the reason he ended up surrendering his life to Christ was because of the prayers of a 6'3" Catholic nun. [She probably wasn't 6'3". I'm surprised Jon Trott didn't track her down to measure her.]

The "testimony" gets back on track with Suicide and the Gospel Trio, The Navy's Number One Grade A Fruitcake - Wow!, and Three to a Cubicle. Again, very funny stuff--at one point he described himself as "900 pounds of homemade sin on a popsicle stick" and described Navy food as "pineapple upside down beans" and "Spam soup"--with mini-sermons sprinkled throughout. Unfortunately, the details of the testimony were apparently completely fabricated.

By the time Mike got to The Gideon Bible and the Mop Closet, he very skillfully turned that corner that Mark Allan Powell was talking about. The story turned deadly serious and you could hear a pin drop (were it not for the rude audience members who would not stop coughing). As I listened to this album again for the first time in many, many years, even knowing what I now know, I'm still affected by it.

It's powerful.

The album concludes with Like Yourself, during which Warnke tells the audience, "Give Jesus a fair chance in your life."

Mike in he 1980s

Mike Warnke released more albums throughout the 70s and 80s, appeared on 20/20, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live!, and packed out arenas all over the country. No one yet questioned the veracity of his claims regarding satanism, drug use, or his military service. But behind the scenes, trouble was brewing in Warnke's personal life that went far beyond an overinflated resume. Multiple divorces, adultery, partying, and domestic violence are some of the issues that were known to other Jesus Music artists, Mike's management, and record label folks. In fact, Mike is basically blamed for ruining the Christian music careers of Randy Matthews, Danny Taylor and Mike Johnson. It's been said that a good many Christian leaders and co-workers knew about "the real Mike Warnke" and did nothing.

In 1992, it all came undone. The aforementioned Cornerstone magazine expose was published, following a lengthy and thorough investigation. Trott and Hertenstein reportedly interviewed over 100 of Warnke's personal friends and acquaintances. In addition to the biographical inconsistencies and moral failings, there were also financial misdeeds. I won't go into all the sordid details here; it's all on the web if you're inclined to look it up.

Rather than acknowledge the sin and deception, Warnke fought back at first. Then he admitted that a small portion of the report was accurate. He ultimately formed what he called a "tribunal" for discipline and accountability. Many say that he has never offered a satisfactory apology. In fact, to this day the bio on his website states, "His painful past history as a satanist high priest, hippie, drug addict, pusher and Naval hospital corpsman attached to a Marine Corps unit in Vietnam has taught him compassion beyond compare."

Mike in the early 2000s

"At times the stress was so bad that I broke out in hives," Mike says about the aftermath of the Cornerstone article. "I couldn't sleep, my hair came out by the fistful, and I was unable to eat anything that didn't upset my stomach. Within two months, everything I had worked so hard for was gone. From a guy who had his own plane and 50 employees, I was reduced to the point of one day standing in a Kroger grocery store with a coupon for baked beans and a coupon for toilet paper but only enough money for one or the other. Was I a fake, a charlatan, a deceiver, and a liar? No. I never lied about my testimony and I never ran a fake ministry. That being said, however, let me hasten to add that all was not right in the Warnke world. My life was out of control. I had no spiritual accountability. Decisions concerning the ministry were based on the bottom line rather than on spiritual priorities. When the storm of controversy hit, everything I had built for 22 years suddenly collapsed like a house of cards."

Mike Warnke's influence and ministry have never been the same. He still travels, still speaks, and still cracks up his audiences. But the venues aren't cavernous, and the crowds are much smaller. No more limousines; he travels in compact rental cars now. If you listen closely, you can hear at least a little regret in his voice. "Everybody expects me to be mad, even now, years after everything came out," Mike told an Oklahoma newspaper. "But I look at this now and think it's God's providence. If you build your house on the sand, it's going to go 'splat!' What happened in my life just proved my house was built on the beach."

On Mike Warnke Alive!, Mike said, "I'm a member of your family. You can pick your friends, but you're stuck with your relatives." That's true. CCM publisher John Styll said, "I would like to point out that Mike Warnke's salvation is not in question. It is true that many people have received powerful ministry from him. God's word is true, no matter who preaches it or why." That is true as well.

At the end of the day, I'm thankful that God blessed a very imperfect vessel named Mike Warnke with a gift. I'm glad Mike has been using that gift to bless the body of Christ and win people to Jesus for four decades.

As for shunning him and judging him for past mistakes? Consider these words from Mike himself...on the album Mike Warnke Alive!:

"If you go to God and you say, 'Look, Man, I know I've blown it. I know I've made mistakes. I know I'm wrong, and I've done this wrong and that wrong, but God, please forgive me.' The Lord says He takes those sins, when you do that, and He throws them as far as the east is from the west. Now, that's not in a circle, like the globe; that's in a straight line. And if you draw a line from east to west, in a straight line, you're never gonna come to an end because that's an infinite line. God takes your sins and He throws them that far away. He says He takes them and He drops them in the sea of forgetfulness, and He remembers them no more. Why's that, 'cause God's got a bad memory? Of course not. He does it because He chooses to do it. That's heavy. The blood of Jesus washes all that crud away. Hallelujah!"

Mike Warnke today

Fun Fact:
Mike Warnke mentions "Phil" and "Honeytree" twice each, by name, on this album. He was referring to Phil Keaggy and Nancy Honeytree, of course.