Racist 'Skinhead Neo-Nazi' Finally Embrace Jesus - Bryon Widner. Shalom, this is the story:
Brian:
"My name is Brian Widener. I'm a former neo-nazi skinhead. Not only to God changed me physically, He also brought love into a world of hate and violence."
"Well, my relative have introduced me to being a Skinhead when I was 14. We were called soldiers of the new Reich. I was beaten up a lot just because I was a skinhead. There was a predominantly Mexican area of town."
"So violence was a very very common thing and you either get hard or you die. And that was ... that's it."
Brian Widner came from a broken home. Raised by an alcoholic grandmother, he learned from an early age that he had to take care of himself.
Brian:
"So I learned how to hate. I started getting tattooed at about 14-15 on the tattoo thing was just to signify the whole tough-guy look. I got swastikas and stuff when I was like 16-17. I got a more for shock value because I really didn't understand the politics behind him. I just knew that they got me in fistfights going off and so that's what's why I put them on my body."
"And after that when I decided why I should probably know what they're about and that's why syrup library isn't studying on in this. And that's why I start getting into the politics of everything before it was just to piss people off honestly."
"Eventually I decided out what it wasn't the place for me and started traveling early country. I met my first hammer skin out in Indiana. They're known for being the most notorious, the most violent, the biggest, the baddest, the elite basically and these guys that's what I wanted to be."
"You know they were just there organized. They were tough because how it was just like everything any skinhead it you know would want to be there. You gotta do the hammer skins and a lot of the guys have facial tattoos and their hands done."
"I mean I had my hands done but I end up getting my neck done and just uh just for the shock value. And I said creeping up onto my face and getting that done. You were pretty out of control."
When the gang disintegrated, Brian and former members created a new gang called "The Vinlander Social Club."
Bryon:
"We started spreading like like a disease. I was in charge of going to different towns in Indiana and setting up chapters. And I was an enforcer."
"As a skinhead in my early years my thinking was very much the white race was the master race. After my first decade I didn't really see it that way anymore. Because I just knew so many white people that were just such scumbags, that I couldn't say okay every white person just someone superior than ever black for someone."
"You know I'm saying ... I'm saying complete opposite, kind of realized the only thing I had achieved in my life was a bunch of scars, you know, illegal record and you know halfway cirrhosis of the liver, that's it. Achieved nothing else in life, nothing positive, actually literally trying to drink myself to death."
"I was just looking for a way out. I was done. I had given up on life. I give up on everything. I was just done. I was sick of the violence but I didn't know any other way to be."
"If I would have talked to anybody about those feelings that would have called me a traitor and then they would have been ... I would have been branded as such and probably shot. So I just I just bottled it up and drank that's all I did."
Brian was depressed and on the edge of suicide then he met Julie.
Bryon:
"I just fell in love with her. After we got married we ... my former gang got real jealous of the fact that I got married, moved 10 hours away. Because I was no longer available for their business. I started working full time constantly to put food on the table, right before they had present actually gave me an ultimatum to choose between them, the gang, or my family so I chose my family."
"Me and he said okay that's fine, you know, which give you a proper retirement. Smelling your patch which I did."
But it wasn't that simple. Death threats started immediately and they never stopped.
Bryon:
"It wouldn't you know call 3 o'clock in the morning, talk about how they're gonna kill me and kill the kids. And for years Julian I lived literally on red alert. I would take her and staying up all night with ball bats and stuff. And just wondering when they were gonna kick in the door."
"It wasn't a matter of day. It was a matter of win. I knew these guys. I know what they were capable of. And I mean ... I'm a pretty tough guy. I can handle myself pretty well, but against seven - eight guys, there's nothing ... there's nothing I can do."
"But for some reason Juli picked up a Bible. It was a old German Bible she had for years, some antique one, just started thumbing through it, reading a little bit. And showed me a couple prayers and uh just a couple, I guess, serenity prayer."
"I started saying that just ... just to call myself in the mornings, cuz we're just it's just being curious more than anything. And we went down to Tennessee for Christmas one year and my father-in-law just go visit him for Christmas and my father-in-law took us to his church. It's a Southern Baptist Church Georgia."
"And something happened what the thing was Julie felt the same thing. And I think it was almost at the same time. I mean I don't know for sure but yo she looked at me ... she's like, 'Did you feel that?' I was like, yeah."
"We you know we're we gotta do something. So ever because we we started praying at that point and praying and praying and reading the Bible. And we actually made a profit I was like if you help us guide this alive we'll give our lives to you and within a couple months we were able to move to Tennessee. And we did first thing we did was ... we there was ... no way I could have done it by myself."
"Once once I was able to accept Jesus in my life I was able to actually smile again. I was able to enjoy a day. I was able to be polite and be happy. I was able to enjoy my children. I was able to just enjoy things and He did that. When He filled me it filled it put it past the hole that was always leaking. And I mean it's it's been amazing it's absolutely amazing."
"When I change inside when I just ... my sole concern was my family and it was no longer about my race or about violence. I had to look every day that I actually made myself. I got to realize that just what kind of a monster I was actually projecting to the outside world."
With the past lingering on his face, Bryant's desire to live a normal life seemed hopeless.
Bryon:
"I know like I got jobs and yeah nobody would talk to me. Parent-teacher conferences were always a mess. I mean it was just ... it was an absolute nightmare and I would start looking into laser removal which was entirely just way too expensive. There was no way I'd ever be able to afford it."
"So I started looking at means of actually using dermal acid and burning off my skin. I was just gonna just go ahead and suck up the burns."
In a desperate move julie contacted the Southern Poverty Law Center. With their help they located an anonymous donor and Brian began a painful two-year journey of removing the tattoos.
Bryon:
"It was absolutely amazing. We ended up doing a q-switched laser out in Vanderbilt University. Dr. Bruce Jack get never seen anything like me before. We walk through the door or because I mean I just had so much coverage that he's never he had never ever taken on something like that."
"And physically it was incredibly painful. It took about 23 to 25 treatments, but everything that's happened has been just literally a miracle. The removal, my family is safe, we are safe. We have a beautiful home. I'm working and it was a my doing ... I didn't do anything. I'm barely a high school graduate yeah not really anything with former street kid."
Source:
Racist 'Skinhead Neo-Nazi' Finally Embrace Jesus | Brian Widner.
Julie Widner Testimony:
SKIN Full Movie:
"God has done just miraculous things in my life and now I can finally give glory words to do. I can finally give him the credit."
- Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. - (John 14:6).
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