Talk:Controversy brews surrounding small Texas church

• I've been to Wells about 20 times......it's one of a million tiny towns in Texas. I've only recently heard a few comments about "something going on at some church in Wells." A friend commented to me today that I should Google 'Church of Wells' and some interesting stuff bubbled up.....hence, this article. --Bddpaux (talk) 20:13, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

• A friend told me that his pastor had a run-in with some Church of Wells members recently.--Bddpaux (talk) 01:38, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

• 4:50pm local time on 10/19/2013 Phone interview with local minister in Tyler, Texas who had an encounter with members of the church while doing volunteer work in downtown Tyler.

Q: I understand that you and some church members had a run-in with Church of Wells members; can you tell me about that? A: About 3 weeks ago, it was on a Saturday.... doing volunteer work for "My Brother's Keeper"[ministry based in Tyler]......takes food to the homeless. We were "out making our deliveries and we finally came to our last stop, which was at an empty lot across from the Greyhound station. So, we were passing out food there, and I looked down the street and saw a group of people coming toward us, some were couples, even some small children. They approached us on the opposite side of the street and as I approached them, something just felt very strange, I got a very strange feeling. I offered them some food. They were very robotic, kind of disengaged and had very big eyes. They told me that they were fine and didn't need anything. One of the men stepped out from the group asked me if I was saved? I said that Yes, I was."

....went back and forth about some scriptures and things like that, "...with him asking me how I knew I was saved" etc.

"After a few minutes, I decided to walk back over to where my group was standing. As I walked back toward our group, I noticed there was a group of men who'd walked over and were talking to some of the teenagers in my church group."

"They said, 'only those who endure to the end will be saved.' I took the guy's Bible and began showing him some different scriptures, so we sort of did some 'sword fighting' [with scriptural quotes] for a little while."

"Their leader came up to our group, and was very agitated; he had red hair and a red beard and blue eyes......he was kind of a short guy, about 5'4."

"He got more and more agitated and angry and was yelling. He said to me, 'That man over there refused to give me his testimony, and the Bible says that we should be ready to give a testimony to any who might ask."

"He was trying to keep bringing up that we had a man who refused to give his testimony."

Q: How did you know these people were from the Church of Wells? A: I had seen this report on the news the week before and recognized them. At one time, I happened to call him 'brother'; he replied, "Don't call me brother. I don't think you and I serve the same Christ." Tried to explain to the man that they were trying to minister to the homeless people.

There was a gentleman in the minister's group, who had some tattoos and ear rings and the Church of Wells leader was, "...yelling at the guy in our group saying, 'Look at you. You look just like the world."

"They followed us up to the square [about 2 blocks away].....and the leader stood up on the fountain and began yelling at everyone. A homeless man who was there asked one of my church members, 'Why is that man angry?' and my church member just told him that the man is confused."

Q: Is it your opinion that the Church of Wells is a cult?

A: "The way they were yelling and the leader seemingly believed that our church member absolutely had to share his testimony aloud with him, specifically him, That's why I can say with comfort that this group is a cult. A cult is controlling and exclusive. All the women dressed the same. He resorted to name calling. He called me a blasphemer, he called me a wolf in sheep's clothing. Often, when someone begins to feel as if they're losing traction on an argument, they'll often shift over into name calling."

"As we were about to leave, he said, 'Prophets of God are not to be mocked.' I said, 'Brother, there are no more prophets. It ended with Jesus. Yes, there are preachers and ministers, but the prophets have ended.' I believe the man thinks he is a prophet. "

Q: What might you say to anyone, a Christian, if they encountered this group or people like them? A: "I would say, 'Know what we believe in.....and go up and engage these people. Be willing to engage them." --Bddpaux (talk) 01:39, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

A few general asides

Regarding freshness and focus on a single event, this one doesn't exactly walk the razor's edge, but I hope I've outlined the general amounts of fluffle-muss that's been going on with this church. --Bddpaux (talk) 19:25, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I hope to review this in a bit; the slight awkwardness I'm mulling over first is the distribution of information — what does/doesn't go in the lede. I feel I'll want to slightly reorder things, and am considering what is within my purview as reviewer. --Pi zero (talk) 22:30, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I feel you....I wish I'd started on this about 6 days ago, instead of a couple of days ago, but I heard about alot of this kinda late in the flow of things. I got started with the 26 year-old woman thing, but then veered over onto the (very lucky) interview with the Tyler, Texas pastor. But, I didn't know how to write an article around the premise of "A minister says that some other church people acted strange in a public place." This is a common problem when one is seeking fodder for stories, where a bunch of small things add up to a (maybe) big thing. --Bddpaux (talk) 01:38, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

Sometimes the solution is to not make it harder than it has to be, but present it confidently as it is — the confidence comes through, and makes as good a case as can be made for newsworthiness, and then you see what you've got. (This reminds me, abstractly, of something I learned about cooking by watching my grandmother and my sister. A good cook acts with confidence. Don't let the ingredients know you're afraid of them.) --Pi zero (talk) 02:17, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

I've made some rearrangements, splitting them into three edits so the extent of my reviewer intervention can be observed via diffs. -Pi zero (talk) 03:26, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

Review of revision 2077101 [Passed]

Revision 2077101 of this article has been reviewed by Pi zero (talk · contribs) and has passed its review at 05:07, 21 October 2013 (UTC). Copyright: Passed Newsworthiness: Passed Verifiability: Passed NPOV: Passed Style: Passed Comments by reviewer: This would be a stronger article with the bit about the parents alleging brainwashing. Adding a source, or replacing the statement with something of similar weight supported by the source, would be outside my purview as reviewer; I considered whether to not-ready and require such to be added, but that didn't feel right either. So I'm running with it as-is, though if a source were provided and the detail restored within the 24-hour window, so much the better. The reviewed revision should automatically have been edited by removing {{Review}} and adding {{Publish}} at the bottom, and the edit sighted; if this did not happen, it may be done manually by a reviewer.

Revision 2077101 of this article has been reviewed by Pi zero (talk · contribs) and has passed its review at 05:07, 21 October 2013 (UTC). Copyright: Passed Newsworthiness: Passed Verifiability: Passed NPOV: Passed Style: Passed Comments by reviewer: This would be a stronger article with the bit about the parents alleging brainwashing. Adding a source, or replacing the statement with something of similar weight supported by the source, would be outside my purview as reviewer; I considered whether to not-ready and require such to be added, but that didn't feel right either. So I'm running with it as-is, though if a source were provided and the detail restored within the 24-hour window, so much the better. The reviewed revision should automatically have been edited by removing {{Review}} and adding {{Publish}} at the bottom, and the edit sighted; if this did not happen, it may be done manually by a reviewer.