SATANIC MUSIC MAKERS DRAW CHURCH IRE

Pat Boone & Marilyn Manson Infuriate Believers

by Warren Arronchic

Pat Boone, known in the 1950's and 1960's as America's foremost goody-two-shoes-music-man, as well as a religious tract pamphleteer and the author of an anti-lesbian book published in the 1970's, has outraged many former admirers with the release of a new album, "Pat Boone: No More Mr. Nice Guy," a provocative musical foray into forbidden dimensions, namely, heavy metal. According to his detractors' readings of music charts, only Elvis Presley has sold more records than Boone. Now, they hope, Boone's ratings, as a result of their protests, will plummet.

The singer's recent appearance on the American Music Awards Program startled two generations of viewers and has now erupted into a full-scale crusade with outraged members of the Christian right sending of thousands of protest letters to the Turner Broadcasting Network. The one-time squeaky-clean crooner appeared dressed in metal attire, his bare arms and bare chest protruding under a leather jacket. He also wore studded arm bands a studded dog-collar and fake tattoos.

Interviewed on Larry King Live, Boone expressed a mild astonishment at the ferocity of the rejection he's received from one-time fans. Some evangelicals, however, have sent him letters of support, refusing to confuse his current art form with Satanism.

Much worse, according to angry critics, is the release of Marilyn Manson's latest CD, "Anti Christ Superstar," which rose to third place during its first week on the charts. Church authorities are warning their flocks to be especially wary of this particular album, whose lead singer is an "ordained" Satanic priest and "who's head-banging band defy every moral principle." The group, according to Abiding Word Ministries of Melbourne, takes its name from "suicidal sex symbol Marilyn Monroe and serial killer Charles Manson."

Wearing T-shirts that read, "Kill God, Kill Your Mom and Dad, Kill Yourself," the band celebrates hate, racism, sexual depravity, violence and blasphemy, according to the ministries and, "religion is a favorite theme as they mock God and rant against Jesus." Marilyn Manson, reportedly, has warned the churchgoers to "raise your kids better or I'll raise them for you....I'm on my way down now, I'd like to take you with me."

"Where is Tipper Gore, now that we really need her?" asked one church-goer, referring to a campaign against offensive rock lyrics led by the Vice-president's wife in the late 1980's. "Its a shame nothing can be done to put a stop to these awful bands."

Expressing worried sentiments, but from a different perspective, the NAACP is holding healing rallies in Brooklyn where a second gangstra-rapper has been gunned down in the wake of an earlier, highly-publicized drive-by shooting of a famed rapper in Las Vegas.

"We are what we hear, having become what we've heard," said Jonathan Tyres, critic.