BOB LARSON

Born 1944 in McCook, Nebraska, Mr. Larson is a radio and television evangelist, currently based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Bob Larson has authored numerous books on the subjects of rock music, cults, and Satanism, written from a Christian perspective.

He has an active following in the Usenet community at alt.fan.bob-larson.

Larson plays guitar; he has claimed his early experiences as a musician led to his concerns about occult and destructive influences in rock music. He would later incorporate his guitar playing into some of his sermons.

In the 1960s, the focus of Larson's preaching centered mainly on the leftist political ideology, sexually suggestive lyrics, Eastern religious mysticism, and antisocial behavior of many of the era's rock musicians. Less flamboyant than the Peters Brothers and less sensational than Jack Chick, Jeff Godwin, or Jacob Aranza. Larson is still remembered as one of the most vocal fundamentalist Christian critics of rock music.

By the 1970s, however, much of Larson's teachings concerned Satanism. Bob Larson originally rejected Christian rock music based on its similarity in sound and image to secular rock music. Larson frequently appeared as a guest on secular and religious talk shows.

In 1982, Bob Larson launched "Talk Back", a two-hour weekday call-in show geared mainly toward teenagers and frequently focused on teen-oriented topics such as role-playing games and rock music. By this time Larson had come to embrace contemporary Christian music, including styles such as heavy metal and rap, and actively promoted the music and artists on his show.

By the late 1980s, in what would come to define his later ministry, Bob Larson was often heard performing exorcisms of callers on the air. The subjects of Satanism and Satanic ritual abuse were frequent topics of discussion. Death metal performers Glen Benton of Deicide and Trey Azagthoth of Morbid Angel became regular callers. Larson's willingness to accept callers' stories of Satanism and demon possession at face value was admirable, but regularly taken advantage of.

Many pranksters such as the 'Inner Circle' took delight in getting past Larson's personnel who screen the calls.The increasingly sensational tone of the show, combined with allegations of ethical and financial misbehavior led many affiliates—including all of Salem Communications' stations simultaneously—to drop the show in the early 1990s.

Larson's marriage to his wife Kathryn ended in divorce in 1992. Larson eventually married his secretary with whom he has two daughters.

In the 1990s, "Talk Back" began losing much of its teen focus, though Satanism and exorcisms remained as the show's cornerstones. The show began incorporating more right wing politically-oriented topics. Despite the new focus, the number of affiliates continued to decrease until Larson ended the show amidst allegations of fraud and romantic entanglements with several female members of his staff in 2001.

These revelations of irregularity were first raised in the early 1990s by Ken Smith, a CPA and law student living in Denver who obtained court documents, tax documents, and Larson's personal diary entries proving extramarital affairs.

Several former Larson insiders corroborated Smith's allegations, including Jake Ashcraft, a minister, former guest and sometimes co-host of "Talk Back", who made public a personal letter to Larson requesting him to address the improprieties. Bob Larson tried his hand at writing fiction: Dead Air (1991) was largely ghost-written by Lori Boespflug and Muriel Olson.

His later novels Abaddon (1993) and The Senator's Agenda both linked Satanic ritual abuse to political corruption; the latter was largely written by Larson and his second wife. However, a former vice president of BLM (Bob Larson Ministries), Lori Boespflug, claimed that much of Dead Air, though presented as Larson's work, is actually her own.

Supporting these claims is a letter from Larson's lawyer that warns Larson of his "potential liability to Lori", anticipating that "the role Lori has played" would lead her to "demand recognition and/or profit participation" in respect to Dead Air and its sequels.

Today, Bob Larson remains active. His ministry professes to offer an alternative counseling outlet to people who have problems with violence, self mutilation, multiple personality disorders, Satanic ritual abuse, or molestation.

His team is called "Doing What Jesus Did" and has branches all over the United States where people who are looking for help can find a contact person to come to their home for intense prayer and/or exorcisms.

In 2004, Larson returned to the radio airwaves after a two-year absence with a daily talk show heard on a network of radio stations and simulcast and archived on the Internet.

In 2003, Australian film maker John Safran came to do a story on Bob Larson for John Safran vs. God, a comedy/documentary series on world religions. The final episode was devoted entirely to this encounter. It lacked some of the humorous flair of the previous 7 episodes, starting with a brief introduction to Bob.

He talked about his past, and showed John a series of photographs of him with prominent political figures, including Margaret Thatcher, George H. W. Bush, John Major, and Colin Powell, saying; "No one impresses me more as a human being than Colin Powell".

Soon after this, the exorcism started, with Bob ordering Safran (a Jew — though non-practicing) to speak on behalf of his ancestors and forgive Hitler, which he did. As Larson continued with the exorcism, Safran's behavior changed rapidly.

He lost his characteristic lisp, becoming violent and angry, and he began to speak in the characters of several of the spiritual figures that he had investigated in previous episodes, including the voodoo spirit Papa Gede[1] and the Hindu god Hanuman.

The Bob Larson exorcism focused mainly on Biblical Old Testament scripture; however, Mr. Larson advised Safran that to accept Jesus was needful in order to cast out the demons. Larson used this television appearance to promote a tour to Australia in 2004.

John Safran made subsequent radio appearances on Australia's Triple J radio, where he insisted that it was not an act, although he was not convinced that it was entirely a spiritual experience.

As an author, Bob's extensive research and writings on cults, the occult, and supernatural phenomenon have made him one the world's leading experts on alternative spirituality and spiritual warfare.

BiographyMinistries has partnered with ChristianBook.com (the world's largest Christian products distributor) for your convenience if searching for any of Pastor Larson's products.

(1) Christianbook.com has an impressive proven track record of over twenty-five years experience providing the best in Christian products at the lowest discount prices along with outstanding customer service.

(2) They are Customer Certified, meaning (over 1,000,000 customers have rated this store since 1999), with an overwhelming, overall Rating of: 'Outstanding' (in every category) according to Bizrate.com

(3) Christianbook.com is also a Circle of Excellence Sixth-Time Award Winner! (Bizrate)

The links below will also take you to Christianbook.com but to the specific page where that book is located.

Larson's Book of Spiritual Warfare

Dead Air

Larson's Book of World Religions and Alternative Spirituality

return from Bob Larson to Biography Ministries