Applying 20/20 Vision To The Brownsville 20/20 Story!
By Dale C. Crow
After seeing the 20/20 segment on Brownsville one thing really struck me hard. The lack of balance. On this story 20/20 had less than 20/20 vision. The only semblence of any kind of balance were the brief clips of the families who'd had their children proselytized by this movement while at public school.
To give you a better look at some of the "controversy", I will walk you through some of the transcript of the show and help bring things into focus!
The text under the BOLD NAME is from the transcript of the: (Oct. 9, 1997) 20/20 show titled "Countdown to Salvation" Thousands Flock to Controversial Florida Revival .
The text in the light colored box are my thoughts.
LYNN SHERR
While the revival here in Pensacola is stirring up souls, the message being carried by one
of its most fervent believers is stirring a very different set of emotions in a nearby
community. An ugly controversy has arisen in the town ironically named Niceville.
| In other words "The people in Niceville that are speaking out against this movement and are concerned about their kids are NOT NICE AT ALL." {Niceville = Hateville} |
IRMA TEMPLE (PH), PARENT
And the Holy Spirit doesn't cause disorder or dissension in a family, and it was causing
that in our family, and it was -- it was painful.
| I can not count the times people have said that they have never heard any bad things about this movement. Well, they can not say that any more. It is a shame that 20/20 did not look more into this topic. I know of Christ Serving Churches that have split, Christian marriages that have split, and Christian families that have been torn apart by this movement. We are not talking saved vs. unsaved we are talking people in this movement vs. people out of this movement. |
LYNN SHERR
Dr Woolwine has been called the pied piper of Brownsville, a nickname not meant to be
flattering to a man generally well-respected by both parents and students. And that, say
parents, is part of the problem.
LYNN SHERR
Irma and Bud Temple, like all the folks we spoke with in Niceville, Florida, call
themselves faithful families. But they also believe that religion belongs at home and in
church, not in the public high school, which is where they say their children learned of
the Brownsville revival. Worse yet, they charge, the message was preached by the school's
own vice principal, Dr Chip Woolwine (ph). The Temples, who asked us to keep their
religious denomination private -- but are not Pentecostals -- say they became concerned
when their 16 - year - old daughter began to embrace the practices emanating from the
revival.
| You ask why they wanted to keep their religious denomination private? I can tell you
that. I have personally have had an out and out attack on my religious denomination due to
me speaking out and asking people to look at both sides. All I was doing was asking this
person (at their request), to provide some Biblical References to support one of the
physical manifestations of this movement. And my denomination was called one the
"most unscriptural, liberal and Word denying denominations that go under the name
Christian". I feel so loved. Listen to some of the concerns of the parents and ask yourself "is this people being hatefull?". |
LYNN SHERR
When did things really start getting bad with your younger daughter?
BUD TEMPLE, PARENT
When my daughter picked me up at the airport one day. She was driving. I got in the car,
and she was driving down the road, and she was shaking, jittering, bouncing, whatever term
you want to use, she was not -- you know, as if she was afflicted with some sort of
disease. And I finally said, "What is wrong with you? What is -- what are you doing?
What's the matter?" And she said, "Oh, I'm just filled with the Holy
Spirit." And it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I almost fell out of the car.
| I have asked people about this and their response is "I would rather have my
daughter shaking under the power of the Holy Spirit than on drugs". I have no idea
what world they are living in! It is this type of logic that has helped cover people eyes to the truth. If you want to show how absurd and fawed this type of logic is, we could use the following statement: God is love - As far as we know, this girl was not in drugs or was thinking about doing drugs and lived in a Christian home. This is the M.O. of this movement if you can not justify or give a Biblical reference for some thing then you either attack the person that is asking the questions or ask that person a lot of side issue stuff to get them off their original question. |
IRMA TEMPLE
And a lot of those youth are young youth and they're vulnerable, and they're -- they're
easily influenced, and they look at an administrator and a teacher, and they look up to
them.
| Is it wrong for these CHRISTIAN families not to want their children proselytized by
this movement while at public school? Is it wrong that they feel that preaching religious beliefs is their responsibility and inappropriate behavior for a public school administrator? |
LYNN SHERR
Dr Woolwine insists the religious conversations were largely initiated by students.
LYNN SHERR
Vice Principal Woolwine a devout Christian, he readily admits the revival changed his own
life and that, at times, he escorted up to 50 students to the church.
LYNN SHERR
Dr Woolwine's religious activities prompted a school board investigation. He was accused
of holding Bible counseling sessions in his office and baptizing students at a local
bayou. His supporters in this Bible Belt community were outraged by the charges and so
vehement about it, most of his accusers say they were afraid to speak out. Sill, in June
at an emotional school board meeting, Dr Woolwine was found guilty of violating a policy
requiring religious neutrality.
DON GAETZ
What we're trying to say is that nobody uses our public schools as the staging area for an
attack on anybody's religious faith or as a recruiting station to try to get kids to give
up the faiths they're taught in their own homes and follow some pied piper, however
well-intentioned he might think he is.
DON GAETZ (PH), SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER
If the laws are wrong, then I invite people to seek out legislative remedies and change
the law.
RED - HAIRED GIRL
I started skipping school and running away, and I was in juvenile detention center, and
everything like that. Because I was skipping school, I ended up in the vice principal's
office. God bless you, Dr. Woolwine. And -- and he invited me to Bible study, and
he shared the word with me, and who cares if that's illegal? (Applause)
| Who cares if that's illegal? Do you care?
Does God care? What are we teaching our kids? Do we have any moral absolutes any more? And the crowd goes wild with applause after that statement. I was at Brownsville one time when a high school gave a testimony and said : he had just gotten his report card and he had four incompletes and three failures because he could not stop reading his Bible and as usual the crowd went wild with applause after that statement! I on the other hand thought it was very sad. Some in this movement are becoming so heavenly minded they are no earthly good . It is SAD. S.A.D. stands for "Saints Absolutely Deceived". So now it is ok to break the rules for God? The rules of the school board do not force any one to renounce their beliefs just use some restraints in sharing them. Some people think it was right for Dr. Woolwine to break the rules because he was doing it for God. You know he was doing it for a higher cause! If you use the logic (or attitude) of this movement the next step would be for us to break the law and not to pay our taxes because the schools will not let us preach and teach what we want to. If you see a problem you use the system in place to correct it. If you think the schools should not be religious neutral then vote in the people that will do it! But you need to remember if you open up the schools to Christianity then you also open it up to all of the other religions and cults. Would it make a difference to you if Vice Principal Woolwine was Muslim? Would it still be ok for the pied piper to take your kids off? |
LYNN SHERR
School board member Don Gaetz says he's received several death threats since launching the
investigation. But he claims he has no regrets concerning the board's verdict.
BUD TEMPLE
Well, I'm more concerned about what somebody might do. I'm concerned about the activities
of the zealous people, the very, very fanatical people, and you can't predict what a
fanatic's going to do.
| What the two statements above tell us about the attitudes of some of the people of
this movement? It is ok to break the rules for God and to threaten death to someone
that does not agree with them? This is just one bad apple that called right? Check out the con email I have gotten at: http://users.vei.net/ihs/mailbag.htm Where do they get this type of thought? Let us look back at John Kilpatrick's April 6, 1997 Prophecy Against Hank Hanegraaff found at: http://users.vei.net/ihs/kilproph.htm John Kilpatrick said: [And Mr. Hanegraaff, I want to say to you, before you get back on national television and start spouting off at the mouth again about something of which you know nothing of, you'd better be careful, because God said, "Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord." And I want to say something else to you. If you want to keep any kind of a semblance of a ministry, you better back off from this revival and what God is doing. You better back off, because I'm going to prophesy to you that if you don't, and you continue to put your tongue in your mouth on this move of God, within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down. I said, within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down. And I speak that as a man of God. I don't speak that out of vengeance, I don't speak it out of selfishness, and I don't speak it out of a hurt feeling, because my feelings are not hurt. I feel as normal today as I've ever felt. I don't have a chip on my shoulder, I don't have an ax to grind. But this is a move of God and you better leave it alone. [Applause.] If you don't want your head to do like this, you better lay your mouth off of her.] |
LYNN SHERR
Chip Woolwine was removed from his job as vice principal and shifted into a position where
he'll no longer come into contact with students.
LYNN SHERR
If you had things to do over again at Niceville High School, starting with the day you
went to the Brownsville revival, what, if anything, would you do differently?
DR CHIP WOOLWINE
Nothing. I wouldn't do anything differently. To save my job, to save my career, which one
of the students would I send back to – to the awful life that they were experiencing,
and my answer is, I wouldn't send any of them back to save my job or my career.
| So you say that Vice Principal Woolwine made a stand and then got caned. No I think it is deeper that that. This cuts to the core attitude of this movement. Did Dr. Woolwine know that what he was doing may put his job on the line? I think he did. Did he know he was breaking the rules of the school board? I think he did. I think Dr. Woolwine was mislead somewhere down the road. He was instilled with the attitude of this movement. If he had only worked from within the guidelines of the school board he would still be in school and able to tell kids about Jesus in the confines of the rules, but most of all the kids would be able to see Jesus in his life day in and day out. That is called putting feet on you faith and walking your testimony! My dear friends this life is a marathon race not a sprint. I know people are yelling that we are close to the finish line but we must maintain our discipline. A runner that losses his discipline and/or technique at the end of the race will loose the race. I think this was the case with the Dr. Woolwine he heard the crowds at Brownsville cheer him on and he lost sight of the rules i.e. discipline and/or technique. |
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