The Witchmobile

Summary

Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Episode Summary – "The Witchmobile"

Introduction

In the episode titled "The Witchmobile," released on February 26, 2025, Devil and the Deep Blue Sea delves into the intricate web of the Satanic Panic that enveloped America during the 1980s and 1990s. Hosted by Mike Kosper of Christianity Today, the episode explores how widespread hysteria about satanic conspiracies overshadowed genuine moral and spiritual challenges within communities and institutions, particularly focusing on influential figures like Reverend Jerry Falwell and Mike Warnke.

Historical Context and Key Figures

1. Jerry Falwell and the Rise of the Moral Majority

Reverend Jerry Falwell, founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church and later Liberty University, emerges as a central figure in mobilizing the evangelical community against perceived moral decay. The episode chronicles Falwell's transition from a pastor advocating for racial segregation to a prominent leader in the conservative movement. His establishment of the Moral Majority in 1979 marked a significant shift in political activism among evangelicals, emphasizing pro-life stances, strong national defense, and support for Israel.

• Notable Quote:

  "We change a bad direction of the 20th century that for a generation almost damned this country."
  — Jerry Falwell (31:39)

2. Mike Warnke and the Witchmobile Phenomenon

Mike Warnke, dubbed the "world's number one Christian comedian," utilized his persona and the "Witchmobile"—a converted box truck displaying occult artifacts—to spread messages about the dangers of satanism and occult practices. His performances blended humor with harrowing tales of satanic rituals, which, as later investigations revealed, were fabricated. Despite the lack of credible evidence, Warnke's narratives fueled public fear and paranoia.

• Notable Quote:

  "Mike Warnke prospered not because he scared you, but because his grotesque stories and fabulous lies made you feel better."
  — Narrator (42:20)

The Satanic Panic Ecosystem

The episode outlines how figures like Beatrice Sparks and media platforms contributed to the Satanic Panic. Sparks transformed genuine accounts of teenage despair into sensationalized stories of satanic possession, while television shows and publications perpetuated myths about widespread satanic cults. The Witchmobile served as a tangible symbol of these fears, offering a curated display of occult items that, despite their ordinary appearance, represented the lurking evil in the public imagination.

Case Study: Jonestown Massacre

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, where over 900 followers of Jim Jones died in a mass murder-suicide in Guyana. This tragic event underscored the extreme manifestations of charismatic leadership and cult dynamics, paralleling the manipulative tactics seen in the Satanic Panic narratives.

• Notable Quote:

  "If all you were to pay attention to was the way that Jim Jones himself described it, you would think again, it was this people's paradise on earth."
  — Rick Emerson (46:44)

Investigations and Revelations

Investigative reporting by figures like Mike Hertenstein and John Trott exposed Mike Warnke's fraudulent claims of satanic affiliations and occult activities. Their revelations debunked many of Warnke's stories, aligning with the FBI's findings that over 15 years of satanic ritual abuse investigations yielded no convictions. This scrutiny highlighted the lack of tangible evidence supporting the widespread claims of satanic conspiracies during the Panic.

• Notable Quote:

  "Jason Warnke's entire ministry had been a fraud."
  — Narrator (40:00)

Impact on Evangelical Movement and Society

The episode emphasizes how the Satanic Panic served as both a distraction and a catalyst within the evangelical community. While it diverted attention from internal moral failings, it also galvanized political activism, paving the way for the Moral Majority's significant influence in American politics. The intertwining of genuine social concerns with unfounded fears created a complex landscape where legitimacy and paranoia coexisted.

• Notable Quote:

  "We tell ourselves stories in order to live. We can convince ourselves of anything or we'll believe whatever we're told if it lets us sleep a little easier at night."
  — Narrator (42:20)

Conclusion

"The Witchmobile" episode of Devil and the Deep Blue Sea offers a comprehensive examination of the Satanic Panic's roots, key players, and lasting effects on American society and the evangelical movement. By dissecting the roles of influential figures like Jerry Falwell and Mike Warnke, the episode sheds light on how fear-driven narratives can shape political agendas and obscure more pressing moral issues within communities. The exploration serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of mass hysteria and the ease with which truth can be manipulated to serve broader ideological goals.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Mike Kosper Introduction:

  "The best way to support this podcast is by subscribing to Christianity Today."
  (00:00)

• Jerry Falwell on the Religious Right:

  "I started something many years ago that the press has dubbed the religious right..."
  (08:19)

• Mike Warnke’s Testimony:

  "I quit kidding myself about my looks a long time ago..."
  (38:17)

• Final Reflection:

  "Mike Warnke prospered not because he scared you, but because his grotesque stories and fabulous lies made you feel better."
  (42:20)

Key Takeaways

• The Satanic Panic was fueled by charismatic leaders and sensationalized media, leading to widespread fear without substantial evidence.
• Influential evangelical figures like Jerry Falwell leveraged these fears to galvanize political movements, notably contributing to the rise of the Moral Majority.
• Investigative efforts eventually debunked many of the satanic conspiracy claims, revealing the Panic as a phenomenon driven more by social anxieties than factual occurrences.
• The episode underscores the importance of critical thinking and evidence-based approaches in addressing societal fears and moral concerns.

---

Devil and the Deep Blue Sea provides an insightful exploration of a tumultuous period in American history, unraveling the complex interplay between faith, fear, and politics. Through meticulous storytelling and well-researched narratives, the episode invites listeners to reflect on the mechanisms of mass hysteria and their enduring impact on societal structures.

Transcript

[Mike Kosper]

Thank you for listening to the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. The best way to support this podcast is by subscribing to Christianity Today. As a Listener, you get 25% off your subscription and unlimited access to a platform that elevates the stories and ideas of the Kingdom of God. Claim this special [e-mail] deepblue sea that's orderct.com deepbluec all one word. Subscribe today and become part of conversations that matter.

[Rich Perez]

There's no denying that how our cities and neighborhoods are shaped have a deep impact on our lives. Even more so, the design of our neighborhoods reflect our values. So who gets to shape them? You see, while it's easy to recognize a city, identifying a just one is more challenging. The urban landscape tells a story of who's prioritized and who's marginalized, what's deemed worthy of investment, and what's considered expendable. In this podcast series, we'll explore the relationship between race and place, and together, in conversation with neighbors and experts, we'll unravel the threads that shape life in our cities. I'm Rich Perez and this is this great and complicated place. Join us on Spotify, itunes Wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe today and join the conversation.

[Unknown]

We'll see you there.

This is CT Media.

[Mike Kosper]

A note to listeners this story contains sensitive content including sexual abuse, child murder and dark spiritual themes, and may not be suitable for all listeners.

[Unknown]

Want more? Devil in the Deep Blue Sea Every other Monday at 9pm Eastern. Any week when we aren't dropping a new episode, we're going to be live on the CT YouTube channel and the Devil in the Deep Blue Sea Facebook page for Q and A, ask questions, hear behind the scenes stories, meet special guests and dive even deeper into the madness of the Satanic panic. And if you're a member of the Facebook group, you can send your questions in advance. Check out our links in the show. Notes August 8, 1974 President Richard Nixon addresses the nation.

[Richard Nixon]

Good evening. This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office.

[Unknown]

Two years earlier, on June 17, 1972, the same day Nixon's telegram was read at Explo 72, five men were arrested for breaking into the Watergate office complex in Washington, dc. Within days, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two reporters with the Washington Post, began reporting on the break in, exposing connections between the burglars and the President's re election campaign.

[Richard Nixon]

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body.

[Unknown]

The scandal widened. They found illegal campaign contributions and a broader effort of spying and sabotage that triggered congressional investigations, which Nixon resisted cooperating with, which led to a broader sense that America was on the verge of a constitutional crisis. And all of that led to this.

[Richard Nixon]

Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.

[Unknown]

Now, it's worth remembering the messaging and the tone with which Nixon came into office.

[Richard Nixon]

It is time for an honest look at the problem of order in the United States. This time, vote like your whole world depended on it.

[Unknown]

In 1968, he ran this campaign of law and order, a response to the overwhelming sense from the 1960s that our country was spinning wildly out of control. And while we most associate him with the chaos and embarrassment of Watergate, he was widely seen as successful in 1972 in the election we just held. Some have called Trump's 2024 win a landslide. He won 312 electoral votes and 49.8% of the popular vote. In 1972, though, Nixon won 60.7% of the popular vote, and he won every state but Massachusetts for a total of 520 electoral votes. Now, that is a landslide. And here's what's wild about all of this. It's not like the 1972 campaign was ever close, and Nixon resorted to dirty tricks. Bugging campaign offices, spying on the dnc, stealing strategy documents, sending out slanderous letters to divide the Democrats further. It's not like he did all that stuff to gain some kind of advantage. He led by double digits for pretty much the entire campaign. The Democrats were a divided party, still a mess after the 1968 campaign that devolved into street violence in the Chicago convention. So there's not really an argument to be made that Nixon somehow needed dirty tricks to win. And that was pretty obvious to the American public. It sent a message. In fact, just a year before Watergate, 1971, the Washington Post had exposed another story, another scandal referred to as the Pentagon Papers, which showed our government orchestrating a campaign of lying and manipulation about the Vietnam War pretty much from its beginning. The purpose was to justify it and to sustain it. So Watergate comes on the heels of that scandal. Not only does it expose Nixon's character flaws, his deep contempt for his political enemies, and his utter paranoia, it also told all these law and order voters a much more grim message, that maybe when it comes to presidents, maybe they're all a bunch of crooks. And then Suddenly, it was 1976.

[Richard Nixon]

Hi, Governor Carter from Georgia. How are you doing running for president?

[Jerry Falwell]

I want to ask you to help me next year.

[Richard Nixon]

In the beginning, Jimmy Carter's campaign was a lonely one. But through the months, more and more people recognized him as a new leader. A man who will change the way this country is run. A competent man who can make our government open and efficient, but above all, an understanding man who can make ours a government of the people once again. Jimmy Carter, a leader for a change.

[Unknown]

Jimmy Carter was a former naval officer who took over the family peanut farm in 1953. He entered state politics a decade later, was elected governor in 1971. He was a Southern Baptist, outspoken about his deep Christian faith and critical of his own denomination stance on racial issues. He was active in civil rights causes and known as a reformer. He gave off an air of piety that was refreshing to many who had thought something in Washington was wrong. That included a lot of white evangelicals. In 1972, they'd supported Richard Nixon, with estimates of that support ranging from 70 to 80%. Four years later, similar evaluations estimate that Carter received between 50 and 56% of the white evangelical vote. He won just 50% of the overall vote, a thin victory compared to Nixon in 72, but enough to cause an earthquake among the conservative movement and among white evangelicals who were active in politics. People like the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, founder of a private Christian school and college in Lynchburg, Virginia, the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Here he is, reflecting back on that time in 2004.

[Richard Nixon]

I started something many years ago that the press has dubbed the religious right, which is all right, that's to be preferred to the irreligious wrong. And we have been able in the past 25 years to stir the hearts of the people of God.

[Unknown]

Issues like abortion and gay rights, which expanded during the Carter years, motivated Falwell and others to get much more active in politics than ever before. The looming sense was that our culture was still in a lot of trouble. The menace of the 60s, the sexual revolution of distrust in institutions of moral and civil decline, it all hung like a storm cloud over the nation to move things in another direction. It wasn't enough to see politics as a battle between competing factions with different visions of American prosperity and opportunity. Instead, it had to be ratcheted upward. It had to be a cosmic battle between good and evil. And as the Reverend Falwell prepared to gather allies and tell that story, he'd be helped along the way by some strange fellow travelers. A socialist utopian pastor turned cult leader from San Francisco, Beatrice Sparks from our last episode, the author of Go Ask Alice, who's vowed to discover another dead teenager's journal, and a Christian comedian who arrived on the scene like a born again bat out of hell. From Christianity Today. I'm Mike Kosper, and you're listening to Devil in the Deep Boosty. This season, we're looking at the satanic panic and how chasing phantoms distracted us from real devils in our midst. Today's episode, the Witchmobile. Paranoid conspiracies are all you seem to.

[Mike Warnke]

Think of Taking hold of me instead.

[Unknown]

Run, run, run away from the reaper but you never hear it coming when.

[Mike Warnke]

You covering up your ear.

[Unknown]

Born in the early 1930s in Virginia, Dre Falwell was raised in the segregated South. He absorbed the values and the tensions of that place, and in some ways, it defined the trajectory of his ministry. 1956, Falwell founded Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and its culture throughout his lifetime was decidedly shaped by that denomination's traditions. A heavy emphasis on evangelism, kind of folk traditionalism, pastors in suits, lots of hymns, fiery sermons, and its emphasis on the Bible and the family. The church also had, like much of the sbc, a kind of populist hostility towards elites. But Falwell was also undeniably part of the 20th century's church growth culture, someone who lived in parallel to and learned a lot from figures like Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral.

[Richard Nixon]

Welcome to an Hour of Power. Each week at this time, we join Robert Schuller in an hour of inspiration for daily living.

[Unknown]

But where Shuler had the Hour of Power, this television show featuring the grandeur of a modern church and an organ and choir, this strange blend of very, very high culture and mass media culture, Falwell's was decidedly different.

[Richard Nixon]

It's time now for the Old Time Gospel Hour with Jerry Falwell, pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. We are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Good morning and I welcome you to the morning service at the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. I'm Jerry Falwell, pastor here, and it's a real joy every Sunday morning over this station at this time to share with you our morning worship service. Isn't it grand to be a Christian?

[Unknown]

In just that short quote, I feel like you get a sense of what made Falwell unique. Even in the 1960s when this episode was taped, you can already hear kind of nostalgia in Falwell's ministry. It's the old time gospel hour, a sense of connection to a romanticized, not too distant past. And that little comment there at the end, isn't it grand to be a Christian? It's a funny contrast to Robert schuller's catchphrase, God loves you and so do I. Schuler in the crystal Cathedral. They wanted to build as big a tent as possible to include as many people as they could from all expressions of faith as part of their mission. But Falwell was at heart but a sectarian, someone who relished setting himself apart and against the broader culture. Throughout the 1960s, he actively campaigned against the civil rights movement, launching one of many Segregation Academies in 1967. Schools that rejected the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, desegregating schools under the guise that as religious schools they had an exemption. Falwell school only maintained that policy for two years. But much of the culture of segregation continued to inform his schools and ministries. When he founded what would become Liberty University in 1971, there were rules against interracial dating. As late as the late 1980s, those rules were still being debated. They had tempered, but only slightly. Interracial couples who wanted to date could do so, so long as they had a letter giving them permission from their families. When the Reagan administration was debating naming a holiday after Martin Luther King Jr. Falwell actually came out against it. Why not a Martin Luther King day?

[Richard Nixon]

I just feel that there are other black Americans and the corporate body of black Americans who are due honor more than one recent individual about whom there's a great question mark, even to this point. What is the question mark? The question mark is that so far all the records on him are sealed, and neither you, Tom, nor I really know what they're going to say. You're talking about his personal character, his personal morality, and his personal life, as well as any connection. He may be as clean as Billy Graham, but we don't know that because the records are sealed.

[Unknown]

When the anti apartheid movement began to surge in South Africa in the 1980s, Falwell encouraged his followers to invest in the minority white government of South Africa by buying gold, Krugerrands. Black leaders in the U.S. like Jesse Jackson, responded with outrage. He was a firebrand and provocateur throughout his career, and one of his favorite targets was the aclu, the American Civil Liberties Union, a legal action group that he blamed for the secularization of American culture. As Falwell saw it, they led the charge on Taking prayer out of schools, advancing gay rights, promoting access to abortion. Here he is in the 80s, describing how he felt about them.

[Richard Nixon]

I was asked by a very talented reporter in another state two weeks ago, a reporter who happened to be Jewish, what do you Christians have against the aclu? I said, well, you need to understand that we Christians, Bible believing Christians, think of the ACLU in the same way that you Jews think of the Nazis. Something to be avoided. Somebody who's out to get us.

[Unknown]

On September 13, 2001, two days after the 911 attacks, he made these comments, which are among his most infamous and well known.

[Richard Nixon]

The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this. Oh yeah, and I know I'll hear from them for this. But throwing God successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying, trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the aclu, people for the American Way, all of them who tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, you helped this happen.

[Unknown]

Falwell died in 2007. In more recent years, he's been the subject of a wide variety of books, documentaries, podcasts. He's also a major character in a musical written by Elton John called Tammy Faye, where he's essentially cast as the villain. Some of that attention on Falwell has been driven by the influence of his son, Jerry Falwell Jr. Who was his father's successor as the president of Liberty University. Jerry Jr. Was among the first evangelicals to endorse Donald Trump in 2016 and became a kind of surrogate warrior for him in the years that followed. He resigned his post at liberty in 2020 because of an alleged sex scandal involving him, his wife and a Miami Beach Hotel pool boy. He spent the next several years suing and being sued and countersuing Liberty for millions of dollars. But I want to be fair to Falwell Sr. He was a very different character than his son. No doubt some of the controversies around Falwell were well deserved, like these 911 comments or support for apartheid. But in addressing some of those controversies, it can be easy to paint a one dimensional picture of him. Where some characters in the conservative and evangelical political movements seem driven primarily by power or wealth or influence, it's hard not to see Jerry ultimately as kind of a true believer. Yeah, he's a bull in the china shop, but he's a convinced bull, not merely a performative one. So you can look and see how. Along with galvanizing the pro life movement, something we'll say a whole lot more about later, he also pioneered ministries that served single moms, helped facilitate medical care, job training and, for those who wanted it, adoption services. The success of Liberty University is itself a kind of remarkable achievement. Falwell attended an unaccredited Bible college but nonetheless had a vision for a prestigious evangelical school, sort of an evangelical Notre Dame. Today you can find Liberty graduates at the highest levels of academia, politics and media, just to name a few places. They've developed their athletic programs to be able to compete at the highest levels in the ncaa. And when you read biographies or stories from people who attended Liberty when he was there, you get the sense that he was involved. He was curious. He was interested in what was going on in academia, the students. According to one biographer, it was Falwell's encounter with a black shoe shiner who loved his television show and his preaching that led him to integrate the membership at Thomas Road Baptist church in the 1960s, something that wasn't easy for Southern Baptist churches at the time. He also had a strange and complicated relationship with the televangelists, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. They were clearly predatory in their relationship with the audience, and Falwell eventually helped to bring them down, but not until years of seeming to want to believe the best for them, seeing the evangelistic possibilities of what they were doing. To me, the most interesting story about Falwell, though, involves Hustler magazine, a pornographic magazine owned and operated by Larry Flint. In 1983, Hustler published a parody ad based on a popular ad campaign for the Italian liqueur Campari and featuring Falwell. The real ad campaign featured interviews with celebrities describing their first time, a kind of innuendo that makes you think they're talking about sex until the reveal at the end that they're talking about trying Campari. In Hustler, though, the parody ad featured Falwell and described him having sex with his own mother in an outhouse. Despite Hustler labeling it a parody and not to be taken seriously, Falwell sued Hustler for libel and emotional harm and over the course of five years took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. He lost that judgment eight to nothing. But here's where the story actually gets interesting. 1996, a movie came out about the lawsuit, the People vs. Larry Flint, featuring Woody Harrelson as Flint and Richard Paul as Falwell. Shortly after its release, Flint got a call from Falwell asking him to go on Larry King's show to discuss the case again. Flint accepted, and the appearance went well. The men found that they kind of got along in spite of the things they said about each other and despite Falwell trying to convert Flint afterwards. They ended up touring the country together, visiting colleges and universities and debating free speech. And then pretty much every time Falwell was in la, he'd come to visit Flint. They exchanged Christmas cards. Falwell would show off pictures of his grandkids and again regularly try to convert Flint. When Falwell died in 2007, Flint called the editor of the opinion page at the LA Times and asked for the opportunity to eulogize him. The column he wrote and published was titled My Friend Jerry Falwell. Here's Flint remembering him on the Larry King show not long after that.

[Richard Nixon]

What did he have, Larry, that made you, despite all your differences, going to court, like him?

[H]

Well, I disagree with him on absolutely everything. And the woman's right to choose, gay rights. You know, I mean, I. There was nothing that I agree with him about. But after getting to know him, I realized that he was sincere. He's not out there trying to make a buck. You know, he really believes it, whether other people believe it or not. Now.

[Richard Nixon]

So he was not a hustler?

[H]

No, not like a Jimmy Swaggart or somebody, you know. But, you know, my mother told me, she said, son, she said, you'll meet people that you don't like. But she said, when you finally meet them in person, you'll always find characteristics about them that you do like. And I think Reverend Falwell falls into that category. You know, you see that he's sincere and some of the things he did. Larry was just so dynamic when he put out that thing that the Teletubbies were gay. And I'm watching on tv. So I called him in Lynchburg. I said, jerry, what are you doing? I said, they don't need it. Nobody cares.

[Richard Nixon]

But despite it all, you liked him.

[H]

Yeah, I liked him. But he, He. But he told me at that particular time, he said, well, I probably should have put more thought into this because I took this from one of the papers here at the university. So, you know, he. I. I think what got him in trouble was just saying anything that come to his mind.

[Richard Nixon]

Yeah, we're going to show you another.

[Unknown]

I say all of this up front about Falwell for a couple of reasons. First, I don't want to be guilty of oversimplifying him as a character, making him a pure villain. We'll have some of those down the line if you're looking, looking for him. So that's not far away. But second, I think it makes for an interesting perspective on the role he plays in the story that follows. Think about the timeline a bit. Falwell plants Thomas Road Baptist Church in the late 50s, starts his television ministry a couple years later, and in 1967, he starts his private school. Then he founds what will become Liberty in 1971. 1973 is the year Roe vs. Wade is decided, and Falwell doesn't get too activated by it. Many evangelicals responded similarly, and it would take some effort from a few Christian ethicists, philosophers and apologists to sound the alarm about the issue. But then comes 1976. Carter wins the election. The abortion debate intensifies as access expands. Carter also welcomed gay rights activists to the White House in 1970. That same year, Harvey Milk made national headlines by coming out and running for office in San Francisco. Also that year in Miami. In Dade County, Florida, a former beauty queen and singer named Nita Bryant launched a campaign called Save Our Children. She mobilized voters against a new law in Dade county that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation for housing, employment, and public accommodation. As Bryant saw it, the law normalized gay and lesbian behavior in a way that would have eroded family values. The campaign provoked outrage on both sides of the issue, mobilizing 70% of voters to repeal the law in a referendum and galvanizing the LGBT rights movement in new ways, making them more vocal and more active and in some cases, more aggressive. In one famous incident after the repeal, an activist interrupted a press conference with Bryant to throw a pie in her.

[Richard Nixon]

Face as she spoke to a place called Norfolk, Virginia, and were met with protest and all kinds of problems. And every.

[H]

Security agent, security agent.

[Richard Nixon]

No. No, let him stay. No, let him stay.

[Jerry Falwell]

Well, at least it's a fruit pie.

[Richard Nixon]

Let's pray for him right now, Anita. Let's pray. Anita, why don't you pray?

[Unknown]

For many evangelicals, a vote for Carter was cast in hopes of a kind of return to normalcy and decency in office, a reactionary rejection of the corruption of Nixon and Watergate. It wasn't necessarily a vote to revert to the kind of progressivism of the 60s, of the sexual revolution, in Carter's approach to these issues and his Stafford's Efforts to advance them activated evangelical sense of alarm once again. Then Jerry Falwell got a phone call. Here he is telling the story.

[Richard Nixon]

In 2004, Francis Schaeffer called me one day. Now, back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, for those in my generation, he was the guru of all the evangelicals. I'd never been to Labrie, but I had read everything Dr. Schaeffer had written in his sermons and lessons. And when he called me, it just so humbled me that this guy listening to my television program would say, I want to meet you. And we got together, and we weren't together very long until the meeting got a little bit negative because he said, you know, Jerry, you're doing a great job preaching the gospel, but you're a total failure at confronting the culture. I've never heard you mention abortion, you know, in 76, he came out with, what? How then shall we live? And he and C. Everett Cook predicted that abortion that had just been legalized in 73 would lead to infanticide and euthanasia and that this country had entered a death mode and was in a narcissistic period and was going to self destruct. Barrington, Prophets of God standing. He convinced me he was right, though I thought he was a little bit overstating as an alarmist, the case in America. Turns out he was right. He's in heaven now. But he got me to thinking. And then when Roe v. Wade became a reality, it was in the 60s that I met Schaeffer. In the 70s, Roe v. Wade. And I began looking for something to do and talking to lots of political ideologues, conservatives, as to what can the church do. And that led me in 1979, to form the Moral Majority, pro life, pro family, strong national defense. This was back during the Cold War. Strong national defense and support for the state of Israel. Those were our four tenets. And I ask Dr. D. James Kennedy, Dr. Charles Stanley, Dr. Temla Hayter joined me on the first board of formation for Moral Majority. It was an idea whose time had come. 79 and 80. We gathered together seven million families, 100,000 pastors, and we registered eight and a half million voters and activated millions more who were registered as evangelicals but who were not voting. Only 55% of evangelicals at that time were registered to vote, and half of them didn't, while the liberals were all very actively engaged in taking this country toward secularism. And so we began looking for somebody we could support. We came to Texas and met with John Connally, the former governor, to see if he might be a good candidate for president. Four or five other places we were looking for someone pro life, pro family, strong national defense, strongly committed to the state of Israel. And then we sat down with the former California governor, a fellow named Ronald Reagan. About 30 minutes, we all four looked at each other and said, that's the guy right there. That's the guy. And we got behind him and began registering voters. And we were not on the radar screen for the liberal media. They didn't know we existed. They never called us when they were doing polls and they assumed we were dead or non existent. And so we slipped up on them and not only elected Mr. Reagan, but unelected. 12 liberal senators all in one night in November 1980. And that was 24 years ago.

[Unknown]

Ever since then, he's seen his mission in a fairly straightforward way as light and salt.

[Richard Nixon]

That we are to give the gospel to the world, we're to give conscience to the culture, salt of the earth. And we're to get people saved, baptized, discipled, registered to vote, informed, and out to the polls automatically, and in that order. And when we do that, when we do that, we save the culture.

[Unknown]

And he's not terribly modest about their successes.

[Richard Nixon]

We change a bad direction of the 20th century that for a generation almost damned this country.

[Unknown]

Their efforts were helped in no small part by a moral panic that erupted almost precisely at the moment they launched their movement and ran for about a decade as they accumulated their power and influence. We'll meet one of the chief catalysts for that panic right after the break.

[Mike Warnke]

This episode is brought to you by the Truce podcast. I'm sure you've been there. You're at an event, a dinner, a small group, and someone says something like.

[Unknown]

If you're a Christian, you have to vote Republican. Huh?

[Mike Warnke]

That raises an interesting question. How did evangelicals like me get to the place where we just assumed we'd all vote one way? This season on the Truce podcast, we're diving deep into the complexity of the 1970s and 80s to understand how evangelicals tied themselves to the Republican Party. It's a story that involves murder, corruption, redemption, and our need to be heard. I'll be talking with celebrated historians like Rick Perlstein, Pulitzer Prize winners Francis Fitzgerald and Jesse Eisinger, and some of the best guests I've ever had. Truce is the show that uses journalistic tools to look inside the Christian church. We press pause on the culture wars in order to explore how we got here and how we can do better. Subscribe to Truce Anywhere you get podcasts.

[Unknown]

Or listen@trip truthpodcast.com In 1976, when the Christian music industry was still in its fledgling form, a new artist released his first album with Murr Records. It was called Alive. It wasn't music, though. It was a comedy album.

[Jerry Falwell]

I'd like to introduce to you again Mike Warnke. Not because he needs introduction, but I just want to warn you, he's coming, okay?

[Unknown]

Even for Christians in the 70s, Warnke was an odd looking character. Along with his Coke bottle glasses, he had long hair and a receding hairline. He wore flowy shirts. He looked like a hippie. And he leaned into that image.

[Jerry Falwell]

He said, you know, Mike, I called you, I didn't call your imitation to Billy Graham. And if you want to be the kind of Christian I want you to be, then you're going to be you and you're going to to be you for me. And I love the Lord so much for that. And I get so tired of people that get out their big cookie cutter and get out the dough of what Christians are and go, that's a Christian. And if you don't fit into that bowl.

[Unknown]

What becomes apparent quickly when you go back and watch the videos from this era is that Warnke has kind of a combination Persona of being the class clown and remarkably intuitive person. He's constantly gauging the people around around him, performing, entertaining a person with the improviser's gift of always saying yes and, and giving people exactly what they wanted to hear. It's an intuition that would eventually land him in hot water. But before it did, it led to remarkable success. He was not only the number one spoken word artist in the Christian record industry, he also bore the title of the world's number one Christian comedian. He first appeared on the scene in 1972 with a book called the Satan Cellar. In it, Wary told a harrowing tale of drugs, sex and Satanism, which led him on a journey that nearly ended his life. But before he hit rock bottom, it took him to the heights, or claimed to have been a high priest in the Church of Satan and described remarkable access to drugs, servants, money, sex slaves and a lifestyle of luxury. But according to him, it all took.

[Jerry Falwell]

I just started searching in all kinds of ways to see if I could find some spirituality in the world. And by the time I, by the time I got on drugs, by the time I was shooting $125 worth of heroin a day, I didn't care if there was a God or not particularly, I was just out there in alive.

[Unknown]

He describes what happened when he hit rock bottom.

[Jerry Falwell]

I mean, I got to be such a junkie that the devil didn't want to hang around with me no more. Now, when you've been so bad that the devil doesn't want to hang around with you, you been bad. Now I figured he thought I was going to wreck his reputation, you know, because I was a scuzzball, you know. My career as the big time Satanist high priest wound up with me laying in a gutter weighing 110 pounds. 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 rotten out of my head. I'd been pistol whips 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. And it was really a lot of fun. Kids come up to me all the time and say, well, Brother Mike, it's all right for you to say, not to do it because you've already had your good times.

[Unknown]

Warnke said that after that experience, he found himself in the company of Christians, and eventually it led to a radical and heartfelt conversion. And his conversion then led him into ministry. He linked up with an evangelist based in Southern California named Morris Cerulo, and he joined him for evangelistic expeditions, tent revival, street preaching wherever they could find an audience, especially with teens or parents who were worried about the dangers of Satanism in the occult. And if Warnke's harrowing testimony of drugs, sex and cult activity didn't convince you, they brought concrete evidence in the form of the Witchmobile, a box truck with a variety of occult artifacts on display inside. Riding up and down the west coast with the Witchmobile, Warnke earned a reputation as a funny, compelling, effective speaker. His message was kind of brilliant. Not just a harrowing warning about drugs and sex and Ouija boards, but also a message about the radical acceptance of Jesus. It was with that message that he opened his second record, Jester in the King's Court.

[Jerry Falwell]

I quit kidding myself about my looks a long time ago because I guess I realized that you don't have to be good looking or skinny to get into heaven, which, if it was the case, I'd be out on both counts, you know, because I'm sort of. That's a shame about being fat and ugly. There's so much more ugliness There, you know, And. And it's like me, you know, I've gotten to the place where I know that the Lord loves me anyway, so it doesn't depress me when I shave anymore, you know, because I had to get up every morning and shave this face. And I know that I look, you know, I got a face. You can shove my face in a bowl of dough and make gorilla cookies, you know?

[Unknown]

The laughs came along with much darker stories. Over the years, he would tell increasingly horrifying tales of satanic ritual abuse. Stories about crimes committed either while he was a satanic priest or things he'd heard about while traveling around the country and doing ministry at various churches. Here's a story he told in 1988. And let me warn you in advance, this gets pretty explicit.

[Jerry Falwell]

We had a case in Louisiana last year. It sticks in my mind. It's a little girl, six months old, who was murdered by having her sexual organs cut out, by having her heart cut out. And then they took the flesh off her skull and stole her skull to be used in satanic rituals, then put her mutilated body in a garbage sack and threw her in the dump. Now, she was only six months old. That stuff is so real. If we could just get people to understand this stuff is really going on.

[Richard Nixon]

In America right now.

[Jerry Falwell]

Absolutely. And the thing about it is, it's got to be such a problem that there is actually a nationwide task force.

[Unknown]

The problem for Warnke was that this story, like so many of his stories, was not in fact, real. And here's where, like with Falwell, I want to take in the larger picture before we move forward so we properly understand the role that Warnke plays in what's to come. 1993. Mike Hertenstein and John Trott were writing for Cornerstone Magazine, a publication of Jesus People usa. They published an expose of Warnke revealing a pattern of serial adultery, divorce, and allegations of financial misdeeds and mismanagement. The most damning part of the story, though, was the revelation that Warnke had never been part of the Church of Satan and had never been involved in occult activity. Trotten Hertenstein would also discover that many of the stories that Warnke told, particularly some on his comedy albums about his experience in Vietnam, amounted to stolen valor. They were other soldiers stories. In other words, Warnke's entire ministry had been a fraud. Not long after that, in 1995, the FBI would audit 15 years worth of allegations of satanic ritual abuse, the kind described by Warnke in that clip, which had been allegedly taking place all over the country. Out of 11,000 FBI investigations, not a single one was ever convicted convincingly linked to actual cult or ritualistic activity. And yet, throughout that window, the fear of cult activity was palpable. It's important to understand that when Warnke tells a story like the one you just heard, it was hardly the first time most of his listeners had heard such a horror. They probably heard something similar or worse on Geraldo or Donahue or 60 Minutes or Sally Jesse Raphael earlier in the week. Warnke was just one example in a whole ecosystem of stories and myths that was stoking anxiety about the Satanist next door and their designs on the well being of your children. That fact actually helps us understand the role that Warnke was playing. He'd show up at your church and he'd tell his stories. He'd describe himself strung out on drugs with long hair and six inch nails, which he said he grew out and sharpened for fighting. Yes, for fighting. He actually said that all the time. And then he told you about how he came to Jesus, and then he told you how to protect your family from people like him. Before he met Jesus, he was like a gargoyle on the roof of a gothic church. He'd present the grotesque and the terrifying in a way that warded off evil spirits. And that promise was intoxicating. Like we said last week, we tell ourselves stories in order to live. We can convince ourselves of anything or we'll believe whatever we're told if it lets us sleep a little easier at night. In that way, the Whichmobile serves as a kind of perfect metaphor. According to Trott and Hertenstein, the Whichmobile was a mostly unimpressive affair. The artifacts inside, black candles, tarot cards, Ouija boards, ceremonial knives, knickknacks. You could purchase most of them at any San Francisco head shop for a few bucks. But that didn't matter to its audience, and ultimately the objects themselves were only of secondary importance. It was the idea of the Witchmobile that captured an audience, the sense that someone like Cerulo Warnke had delved into that frightening, shadowy world and grasped it, comprehended it, and could effectively warn you and your kids how to stay insulated from it. That was the power of the Witchmobile and ultimately the power of Warnke's whole ministry. Mike Warnke prospered not because he scared you, but because his grotesque stories and fabulous lies made you feel better. We'll be right back.

[Mike Kosper]

This message comes from the Enneagram and Marriage podcast. Have you wanted to improve your relationship but you're running out of ideas, time or even interest. I'm Krista Hardin, the host of the Enneagram and Marriage podcast and I've dedicated the last two decades of my life and career on couples research. Integrating healthy faith practices with the best of marriage research and nuanced personality typing. Couples from all over the world are finding more value centered joy and bringing healthy desire, love and fun back into their bond together again or for the very first time as they work strategically and intentionally on repatterning their love in healthy ways. Join us on Mondays or Wednesdays to listen and learn more about how your life and relationship can truly thrive together.

[Unknown]

As the 1970s came to a close, American progressives were still hoping to turn a corner and recapture some of the energy and optimism of the 1960s. That revolutionary spirit seeking to remake society through civil rights, the sexual revolution, different ways of structuring civil society had suffered losses steadily since 1968 when it was torn apart by violence in the streets, followed by years of disillusionment about drugs, frustrated efforts to end the war in Vietnam, and of late disappointment in the Carter presidency. On the right, a movement was gathering momentum that would seek to bring evangelicals back into the fold for the 1980 election and people like Jerry Falwell were developing a movement and rhetoric for a soon to emerge Moral Majority. On the left. In places like San Francisco, there was still hope that this revolutionary spirit could find its feet, cast a vision for a better social order and bring back some of that romance and optimism of the previous decade. Both sides would awaken to a nightmare in November 1978, a crime of such scale and horror that it's impossible for us to fully imagine more than 900 souls Americans dead in Jonestown, Guyana in a mass murder suicide that included more than 300 children. Most of the deaths were voluntary. The adults lined up to serve cyanide laced flavor aid, a drink similar to Kool Aid, to their children, before drinking it themselves. Those who tried to escape were hunted down. The leader of the community, Jim Jones, was found dead of a bullet wound, likely self inflicted. If in the years since the Second World War a person had grown numb to the idea of evil, they couldn't stay numb anymore.

[Richard Nixon]

Just before dawn, a van carrying 50 victims arrived at Evergreen Cemetery inside small pine boxes containing 45 inch steel caskets to be placed in cement crypts. These are the bodies of unidentified children. In place of names, just numbers on the boxes. This is the first of 248 unidentified followers to be buried here. Other cemeteries had refused the containers were moved into the 60 by 80 foot mass grave, which will have a single marker. Relatives came to watch. Florence Brown's four grandchildren were never identified. She said they had to be here somewhere.

[Unknown]

So Jonestown is this place where, you know, if all you were to pay attention to was the way that Jim Jones himself described it, you would think again, it was this people's paradise on earth.

This is Rick Emerson again, the author of Unmasked Alice, who we heard from last week.

And it had this sort of, you know, it had this sort of flower child, back to the garden kind of vibe to it. It's like, well, they've left behind the shackles of modern society and they've left behind industrialization and the mechanization and the, you know, the sort of, you know, soulless nature of American life. And they're just. It's almost like this. It was almost like this weird, grown up, thousand person, Swiss family Robinson existence, right? It's like you almost sort of picture them living in tree houses and just having this idyllic, you know, sort of, you know, peaceful, back to the land existence.

Jones began his ministry in Indianapolis. We found that a small Pentecostal church whose message emphasized racial reconciliation and a kind of utopian apocalyptic politics. In 1965, he moved out to Redwood Valley, California, in part because he wanted to live out his socialist vision for the People's Temple, the name he had adopted for his church. And in part because of fears of nuclear war. It was there that he began practicing faith healing during his services. In 1971, he opened up shop in San Francisco and attracted a large congregation. In time, he became a kind of political kingmaker, with politicians in the city coming to him for his endorsement and as a reliable gauge of popular sentiment among minorities. In this next clip, you hear him rallying his supporters against a decision known as the University of California vs Bakke, a decision Jones saw as hurting the cause of civil rights in the US.

[Jerry Falwell]

I wish to convey to you that we have the following people who have pledged support to me this morning and last night against the Bakke decision. George Moscone, Mayor of San Francisco. Joseph Freitas District Attorney, San Francisco.

[Unknown]

He goes on like this for a while. He's not bluffing. These people all came to him for guidance on how to respond to the Bakke decision, knowing both that he had the pulse of where their constituents would be and that his own convictions would help to shape and direct theirs. In 1977, he was honored by the city's civic and religious Leaders with the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award. It was given to him by the pastor of Glyde Memorial Church and civil rights leader Cecil Williams.

[Richard Nixon]

Blow the trumpet of freedom for the press.

[Jerry Falwell]

Hit the battle against hunger, properties, homelessness and unemployment.

[Richard Nixon]

March against the barrier of racism.

[Jerry Falwell]

You are a man and a people.

[Unknown]

Living in time for all humanity. Walk that walk and talk that talk and love that.

[Jerry Falwell]

Williams will be lying to you.

[Unknown]

Jones was beloved in San Francisco for so long for the very same reason that Warnke was beloved by evangelicals for so long. The stories were too good to check. All these people living in Redwood Valley, farming, living as a collective, sharing their possessions. In reality, living as a collective meant that Jim Jones got your money, he also got your kids. And if you wanted access to either, you had to pay your respects to him. Here's Rick Emerson again.

He starts up something called the People's Temple, which is this sort of, this sort of wide eyed collectivist, sort of, of communal, you know, we're going to, you know, all work together and bring about the Age of Aquarius. But that pretty quickly transmogrifies into a dictatorial control of all of his followers and, you know, engaging in, you know, in a lot of untoward actions again with, you know, some of his female congregants. And as the city and as the authorities begin to close in and they start looking at, you know, well, maybe these, maybe these people aren't up to any good. He kind of picks up the entire church, the entire group, a thousand people, and they all move to Guyana. So they all move to South America and everything seems to be going well, you know, from the outside. You know, all of the sort of reports you hear from people who live there and all of the very sort of surface coverage that, oh, no, it's a people's paradise and it's, you know, and everybody works and lives collectively and everything is fine. They've left behind the problems of the modern world. But of course that overlooks the fact that, you know, that image was very carefully maintained and cultivated by Jim Jones, who was not above, you know, beating people if they disobeyed him. He was not above dosing people with Thorazine and then locking them in small wooden boxes for nights on end. He was not above starving people. He was not above brainwashing people. Because brainwashing, as it turns out, is actually not that difficult. If you want to brainwash somebody, it turns out it's essentially just a three step process. It's you deny them protein, you work them for 16 hours a day, and you repeat, and that's it. And if you keep somebody awake long enough, and if you deny them protein long enough, and if you keep them working long enough, within a few days, they'll do almost anything you want them to do, and they'll say almost anything you want them to say. Drugs can help to accelerate that, but they're almost. They're almost not necessary if you're a tyrannical dictator who is just willing to feed people nothing but greens and rice and keep them digging ditches all day.

Well, and he was also giving them, like, crank, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. There was, like, meth in the food.

It's really hard to, I think, convey, you know, the extent to which, you know, he had absolutely no morals, no boundaries, no scruples of any kind.

Eventually, word began to creep back up to the States that something wasn't right in Jonestown. Family members organized and convinced their local congressmen to go check things out. Congressman Leo Ryan came with a handful of staffers and journalists, and on November 17, the people of Jonestown did their best to give him and his delegation, the Lincoln staffers, treatment to present Jonestown as the future heaven on earth. At a certain point, though, a member of the People's Temple named Vernon Gosney slipped a note to a member of the delegation saying he wanted to leave, and so did some others. Ryan confronted Jones, who insisted that anyone who wanted to leave could. The next day, a number of People's Temple members approached the delegation and asked to leave with them. Another temple member attacked Leo Ryan with a knife, but did no harm. The delegation left with about 15 temple members with them, heading for the airstrip. Once there, a group of gunmen from the People's Temple ambushed them, killing Congressman Ryan, several journalists, and a defector named Patricia Parks. Several others were wounded. Back at Jonestown, Jim Jones gave the order for the mass suicide.

And so he has been drilling his followers for what he calls revolutionary suicide. And he decides that today, November 18th, is the day. And he calls everybody, all thousand people, to the compound, and his henchmen have gotten out these giant metal washtubs which they've filled with something called Flavor Aid. And Flavor Aid is sort of a cheap Kool Aid knockoff. And they fill it with Flavor Aid, and then they also fill it with things like cyanide. And, you know, just a whole. I mean, there's a whole long list of very dangerous, you know, extremely lethal and extremely painful poisons. And, I mean, they. And then they conduct what is essentially this, you know, sort of this. This, like, horrific sort of like negative image version of like a communion service where he just has everybody line up and he says, everybody get in line, come up. And he hands. And when they get in line, they get to the front and he hands them, you know, he and his henchmen, he sort of is watching the whole thing. He's on this chair slash throne that is on a rock riser so he can, like, look down on the congregation, but he's observing while everybody is lining up. And his henchmen are standing there with a big stack of paper cups and this tub of, you know, of poisoned flavor aid. And as people come up, each of them gets a little cup of this. Of this flavor aid. And, you know, and he says, okay, now go and drink that. And of course, it's filled with poison. And what he is telling people, as he says, by the way, he's. That if you've got. He says if you've got, you know, if you've got babies, you should give it to them first, then children, then yourselves. So he's making sure that their parents, you know, parents poison their own babies and then their own children, and then they poison themselves. And of course, there's a thousand people. So it takes a long time for everybody to sort of, you know, it's going to take a long time for everybody to get up there and get their cup of poison. And in the meantime, the poison has started to kick in and they've started to see that, well, this is not. Because he's also told them it's gonna be a painless death. He's like, this is, you know, you'll just go to sleep. And there are all these horrifically disturbing recordings. You can hear of him sitting on his chair with his microphone and sort of exhorting his followers to take this poison and it's gonna be fine.

Here's just a snippet of that tape, starting with one of his aides giving instructions to families.

[Mike Kosper]

Try and keep your children calm.

[Unknown]

And the older children can help.

[Mike Kosper]

Love the little children and reassure them.

[Jerry Falwell]

It's hard only at first, living.

[Richard Nixon]

You're looking at death.

[Rich Perez]

It only looks.

[Jerry Falwell]

Living is much, much more difficult.

[Unknown]

That's about as much as I can stomach, or at least as much as I can ask you to stomach. The whole tape is truly horrific. The next day, officials from the US And Guyana went looking for the congressman and checked in on Jonestown.

So all of these people are sort of approaching Jonestown, and it's, you know, and there's a big sign they Pass through with a. You know, it's like a wooden sign that says, welcome to Jonestown. And I. There's some. Some sort of slogan carved on it that I'm forgetting at the moment. But they're as. They're getting close to Jonestown. And again, this is a place where a thousand people live. So it's basically a small town. And it's absolutely silent. It's absolutely, you know, dead silent. They don't hear anything at all. They don't even hear any birds. They don't hear any. They hear no wildlife. There's nothing. There's absolutely no sound. And they get close to the compound and they just see. I mean, I don't know what. I don't know what the square acreage is, but it's. You know, it is dead bodies in the sun as far as you can see in every direction. I think if there is a hell on earth, I mean, it's hard to imagine discovering anything like that and not just thinking like, this is like, the end times are here. Like, this is, you know, both Time and Newsweek. Their next edition was just a cover, and the COVID shot was just an aerial photograph. And you can see these online and an aerial photograph of just corpses filling, you know, covering the ground in every direction. And almost all of these followers are from the United States. And of course, there's a congressman who's dead on the tarmac. And it just broke people's brains. I mean, it was just unlike anything that had ever. I mean, even now, you know, it is one of those things that is absolutely horrifying when you read about the details, not just of the, you know, the suicides and the murders themselves, but all the things leading up to it. And it really, really just galvanized this sense in America that something was deeply, spiritually, morally wrong and that evil is, like, loose on the world.

As Americans reeled in shock from what they saw in Jonestown, at least one citizen saw an opportunity.

So Vince Gilligan, the guy who created Breaking Bad, and somebody asked him about some sort of a plot point, and, you know, and he said something about, you know, he said, well, you know, he's like, the thing about Walter White is, like, he always just seems to have the devil's luck. That's how he described it. He said that, you know, he sometimes, you know, things just sort of work out well for him, which means they work out horribly for everyone else. Beatrice Sparks often seemed to have the devil's luck.

Not long before Jonestown, Beatrice Sparks had been presented with the diary of another teenager who'd lost their way. She was the editor of Go Ask Alice, after all, at least as far as these parents were concerned. And they were convinced that Sparks could help them spread the word about what they'd endured, what their son had endured, and the tragedy of him taking his life. Sparks had something more in mind. She recognized the fever pitch of consumer culture and the emerging fear and anxiety around the occult that was gripping parents. So in her hands, this diary of a despairing teenager turned into something much more wild, more exhaustive. It went from being a story of despair to a story of torment, possession. And Spark's instincts, dark as they may have been, prove correct. The book was a massive bestseller. As the sun was setting on the 1970s, all the pieces had fallen into place. A cultural and political movement that wanted to revitalize the culture war as a cosmic battle between good and evil. A reactionary politics from the 60s that had failed time and again, a sense that our leaders and institutions had been corrupted from the bottom up, and a deep fear that Christians had lost touch with their own sources of power and faith. The ground had been seeded for the Satanic panic, and in the months and years that followed, it was about to explode. Devil in the Deep Blue Sea is a production of Christianity Today. It's hosted and written by Mike Kosper. Produced by Mike Kosper and Rebecca Sebastian with production assistance from Dawn Adams Sound design and mix engineering by TJ Hester Sound design, animation and video by Steve Scheidler Graphic design Nim Ben Ruven, Eric Petrick and Mike Kosper are executive producers of CT Media Podcasts. Matt Stevens is our senior producer. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review wherever you've listened. It'll help more people find the show. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. We hope that you're enjoying the show and that you appreciate the work that we're doing. If you wanted to support us, the best way to contribute to the production of this podcast is by subscribing to Christianity Today using our special link orderct.com DeepBlue Sea listeners like you get 25% off your subscription and unlimited access to the platform that elevates the stories and ideas of the Kingdom of God. That's orderct.com deepblue sea all one word. We look forward to having you join us. See you soon.