- Feb 5, 2002
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Jess LaVey speaks at churches on the dangers of dabbling in the occult.
By Ed Donnally
The son of a man who led many to Satan is now leading people to Jesus Christ. But it has been a long and violent road for Anthony LaVey, who has since changed his name to Jess LaVey to escape comparison to his late father, Anton LaVey, founder of the worldwide Church of Satan.
At 15, Anthony LaVey was putting his clothes into his truck and moving out of the house owned by his infamous father. "[He] grabbed me and threw me on the ground, yelling at me while he beat me with a whip," the younger LaVey recalled. "All of a sudden his gun fell out of his pocket.
"I rolled over and picked it up and began shooting the tires out of his truck. I got up and ran to my truck and drove away leaving him yelling. I was covered in whip marks. My clothes were ripped, and I had blood all over me."
The event was typical of LaVey's chaotic, tortured and highly fragmented youth. Today at 33, he is the Rev. Jess LaVey of Yucaipa, Calif., where he does as much ministry as his health allows.
Though he said the Holy Spirit has brought amazing victory into his life, he added that he still bears the emotional and physical scars of prolonged ritualistic abuse while in his father's care. He claims that when he was 11 or 12, his father beat him with a crowbar and then castrated him.
"He was real angry because he couldn't get me to do what he wanted," LaVey said. His father wanted him eventually to lead the Church of Satan. A pop icon of the 1960s and 1970s, Anton LaVey had churches in San Francisco and Hollywood, Calif., with membership reported at 50,000.
On Black Sabbath, April 30, 1966, he declared the arrival of the Age of Satan. Two years later on Christmas Eve, inside the satanists' mother church in Easter Berlin, Jess was born.
Though he spent much of his early life in boarding schools, LaVey said his father insisted in picking him up and bringing him home for visits. There, his father repeatedly raped him and forced him to attend rituals. "[He] was a bizarre, sick man," he said.
Rebelling at 10, he sent away for a Bible correspondence course. He once used a glow pen to write "Jesus Saves" on the walls of a room reserved for rituals. At 14, he made contact with a Vineyard church in Oceanside, Calif., where he received deliverance from demonic forces. "I felt like a big mountain had been lifted off me, and I was totally drained," he said. "But there was peace."
LaVey later graduated from a small Indian Bible college in rural Hemet, Calif., and founded Sword of the Spirit Ministries. He has been a frequent guest on Christian radio shows and in churches, speaking on the dangers of dabbling in the occult. He refused to attend his father's funeral in 1997. Today he keeps photos of his father in a shed behind his mobile home because he doesn't want demonic influences in his house.
www.charismanews.com
By Ed Donnally
The son of a man who led many to Satan is now leading people to Jesus Christ. But it has been a long and violent road for Anthony LaVey, who has since changed his name to Jess LaVey to escape comparison to his late father, Anton LaVey, founder of the worldwide Church of Satan.
At 15, Anthony LaVey was putting his clothes into his truck and moving out of the house owned by his infamous father. "[He] grabbed me and threw me on the ground, yelling at me while he beat me with a whip," the younger LaVey recalled. "All of a sudden his gun fell out of his pocket.
"I rolled over and picked it up and began shooting the tires out of his truck. I got up and ran to my truck and drove away leaving him yelling. I was covered in whip marks. My clothes were ripped, and I had blood all over me."
The event was typical of LaVey's chaotic, tortured and highly fragmented youth. Today at 33, he is the Rev. Jess LaVey of Yucaipa, Calif., where he does as much ministry as his health allows.
Though he said the Holy Spirit has brought amazing victory into his life, he added that he still bears the emotional and physical scars of prolonged ritualistic abuse while in his father's care. He claims that when he was 11 or 12, his father beat him with a crowbar and then castrated him.
"He was real angry because he couldn't get me to do what he wanted," LaVey said. His father wanted him eventually to lead the Church of Satan. A pop icon of the 1960s and 1970s, Anton LaVey had churches in San Francisco and Hollywood, Calif., with membership reported at 50,000.
On Black Sabbath, April 30, 1966, he declared the arrival of the Age of Satan. Two years later on Christmas Eve, inside the satanists' mother church in Easter Berlin, Jess was born.
Though he spent much of his early life in boarding schools, LaVey said his father insisted in picking him up and bringing him home for visits. There, his father repeatedly raped him and forced him to attend rituals. "[He] was a bizarre, sick man," he said.
Rebelling at 10, he sent away for a Bible correspondence course. He once used a glow pen to write "Jesus Saves" on the walls of a room reserved for rituals. At 14, he made contact with a Vineyard church in Oceanside, Calif., where he received deliverance from demonic forces. "I felt like a big mountain had been lifted off me, and I was totally drained," he said. "But there was peace."
LaVey later graduated from a small Indian Bible college in rural Hemet, Calif., and founded Sword of the Spirit Ministries. He has been a frequent guest on Christian radio shows and in churches, speaking on the dangers of dabbling in the occult. He refused to attend his father's funeral in 1997. Today he keeps photos of his father in a shed behind his mobile home because he doesn't want demonic influences in his house.
www.charismanews.com