1. Michael Alfred Warnke was born on November 19,1946 and is an American Christian evangelist and comedian who was exposed in 1992 for inventing stories of his past as a Satanist.
27 Facts About Mike Warnke
1. 2.
Mike Warnke was born in 1946 to parents Alfred "Al" Warnke and Louise Warnke of Evansville, Indiana.
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When he was five years old, the Mike Warnke family moved to Manchester, Tennessee, where his father opened a truck stop.
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In 1955, Mike Warnke's mother was killed in a car accident.
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On June 2,1966, Mike Warnke enlisted in the United States Navy.
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However, high-school acquaintance Charlotte Tweeten has stated she recalls Mike Warnke proclaiming faith in Christ in the year prior to his navy enlistment in 1966.
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Mike Warnke wrote that he began dating fellow Rim of the World High School alumna, Sue Studer, during this time period.
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In 1969, Mike Warnke was deployed to Vietnam for a six-month tour of duty.
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Mike Warnke's own written accounts differ on the number of times he sustained injuries during his time in Vietnam.
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Mike Warnke says it was the latter wound for which he was awarded the Purple Heart.
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In early 1972, Mike Warnke requested and received an early discharge from the navy as a conscientious objector so that he could work full-time in the ministry.
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Mike Warnke then left Cerullo's ministry to start his own, forbidding Cerullo to use any of his material.
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The story ends with Mike Warnke living happily in California with wife Sue Studer.
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Mike Warnke became a popular speaker at Christian meeting places such as Melodyland in Anaheim, California.
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In 1974, Mike Warnke moved his family to attend Trinity Bible College in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a nine-month preparation for ministry.
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Mike Warnke met Elijah Coady, an independent, schismatic bishop of the Syro-Chaldean Church, known as the Assyrian Church of the East.
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In November 1975 at an Indiana coffeehouse, Mike Warnke's talk about his conversion from Satanism to Christianity was incidentally recorded.
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Later that same year, despite interventions from pastors and other acclaimed ministers, Mike Warnke left his wife for Alberty and filed for divorce.
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Mike Warnke's popularity earned him the cover of the September 1976 issue of the Christian magazine Harmony.
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Mike Warnke's albums became "the most popular Christian comedy albums ever produced".
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Mike Warnke said, 'If you go to a local hospital and tell them what your name is, I'll kill you.
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Under Word's Dayspring label, Mike Warnke then released Stuff Happens, Good News Tonight, One In A Million, Live.
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Six weeks after the divorce was finalized, Mike Warnke married Rim of the World High School alumna Susan Patton.
24.
Mike Warnke followed up his interest in the Syro-Chaldean tradition and his 1970s ordination as a deacon with a 1983 ordination by independent bishop Richard Morrill, lately of the Byzantine Catholic Church, Inc This ordination allowed Warnke to call himself bishop.
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The investigation further uncovered that before joining the navy, Mike Warnke had been involved with the college Christian ministry Campus Crusade for Christ.
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Finally, on September 30,1992, fewer than 100 days after the investigation was made public, Mike Warnke's ministry closed its doors.
27.
Presently, Mike Warnke operates a website which describes him as a former satanic priest and solicits online donations.