In Memory of: Dana Hannon: 29 Years old: New York City Fire Fighter

Dana Hannon, 29, wanted to be a firefighter for almost as long as he wanted to hunt. After high school, he worked as a carpenter to support himself while he served as a volunteer firefighter in his hometown, Wyckoff, N.J., where he rose to the rank of captain. He got his first paying job as a firefighter in Bridgeport, Conn., where he was awarded the medal of valor for a rescue. Seven years after taking the exam, he joined the Fire Department of New York. He was with Engine Company 26.

Hannon is one of six firefighters from Engine Co. 26, midtown Manhattan, missing in the World Trade Center disaster. He last was seen on the fifth floor of Tower One.
Hannon’s first job in New York was with Ladder Co. 34 in Washington Heights, but after a year there, he rotated to Engine Co. 26. Recently, Hannon had been lecturing as part of the Fire Department Instructors Conference.
“He was always taking classes at the Bergen County Fire Academy. His appetite for learning about firematics was insatiable,” his sister said.
“He was born to be a fireman. I know that. But it doesn’t make this any easier.”
Beside his father, sister and fiancee, Hannon is survived by his mother, Gaye

Random Talk: This is a new one one me….

[c]2009 by Zorek Richards
Lighthouse Baptist Church; St George Kansas

Alright, so I end up in Wamego, Kansas, through a chain of events, and when I hit bottom a few new doors open up. Most impactful, at least at first is a new church, one Lighthouse Baptist in St George. I become a faithful attendee but then start to see something I cannot do anything about: I am not a Baptist.  That became clear after a bit and though I would not of thought it important, it became so. Mainly because of my initial dialogue with the pastor, Jim. At one point in one of our first conversations he kind of came out of the blue and said “It’s hard to get people to unlearn things.” I agreed at the time, but now that I  look back, and considering I was giving him 20 questions on what he believed in and share some of mine, he was telling me that it would be very hard to get me to unlearn stuff.  I only recollect that in hindsight, but it became clear as we went along. He was very quick to always shoot down most of my comments in a Bible study and then say that he would get back late in the week on it. He never did. He never tried. It soon became clear that he was saying that just in show of others, but outside of that  he would have nothing to do with me. Why? Because I am not one he could control, and I have more Biblical knowledge than he could dare to really touch.  That is not an arrogant brag on my part, it is just an observation.  But I had too much for him to unlearn to mold into the “yes man” that he wants from his congregation.  And, did I say he used to be a used car salesman?  Yeah, he had the technique down in his position as a pastor.

Anyway, I reckoned I would leave there and had pretty much quit going to the Sunday meetings any way. I started to show up for the Wednesday night meal just to chat a bit, but then found it wrenching to have to sit through a Bible study under his command.  I tried not to ask questions, but sometimes I just had to and he did his usual shut down and we will  talk later bit, and then there never was a later.

Well, then through some chain of events I became friends  with Carol, who went to Lighthouse.  Carol had been very cruelly dumped after a week or so of marriage by an associate pastor at Lighthouse, Scott Perry, who Jim had urged to have put in the position. Carol claimed that there were people really pushing the marriage, but Scott showed his true colors and very cruelly betrayed her. After the annulment went through we started talking. We became friends. Then a bit more than friend without going into details (No sex, of course).  After a couple weeks though it was clear that someone had her ear again. I confronted her about it and she denied it. But she was beginning to push away.  Well, after she in turn betrayed me by claiming that she had no idea what she meant when she said “I love you” and she wanted to stop kissing and such and just be “fair weather friends”, I told her I loved her but I did not think it fair that she lead me on then begin to pull away.  But I was not angry at her. Maybe a little bit at God initially . But with suspicion that maybe the one who was telling might be Jim, though she denied it. My commitment was always first to God, so after a felt like I got kicked in the stomach by Carol’s own betrayal of me for a day or so, then I picked up my life and went on.  Then, what do you know, but one of Jim’s faithful slipped and told me stuff that she should not be telling me because the stuff was told to Jim and Jim should not be talking about it. It was always clear that Jim talked about people and told stuff that he should not tell because as a pastor it was told in confidence. But Jim quite frequently spilled information in an effort to make himself  look “informed” I guess.

So I was told a bit about Carol & Jim’s dialogue through another church member, who I will call “A.” I told “A” I was going to have words with Jim. “A” had many times agreed with my complaints about Jim. I had no opportunity physically so sent an email quite a few times. Jim, of course, as is par for his course did not answer. Anyway, at this point it got so messed up and even “A” was telling me how Jim’s wife was all upset and hurt about things. My question; What things?  There is a group of people at a Baptist church who spend time talking about each other…and then I am the bad one because I say “Stop! It is not right!” No one should be talking about anyone else, and ESPECIALLY if it is in pastor-counselee relationship………….and this was the proverbial, final straw for me. Jim had no business telling “A” about Carols problems so that “A” could tell anyone for any reason. And especially not me because 1) I do not care to hear about others people secrets, and 2) it was already clear that this was something Jim does regularly.

OK, so here’s the twist: I have become the bad guy. And I do not even go to the church. I exposed this happy gossip group and now, according to them,  I am just evilly hurting people left and right.  I am a bully!! How about that?? I do not share gossip and have no interest in hearing it. Anyone who knows me should know that by now. If someone shares someone elses problems with me, I usually ask why? I have ZERO interest. I do not snoop through people’s  stuff when they are not around and could care less about their secrets.

OK, so I will leave it at that. Jim and this group will probably claim to be the martyrs of some kind. Fine, I do not care. I feel sorry for those who think he is more than a used car salesman. Carol was a friend who betrayed me. No one stepped up, and especially not JIm, for my pain. I promised Carol that I would love her and I do not break promises like that….even in spite of what she did.  But life goes on.I am going to keep looking Eastward and they can continue to keep each other company as they stare at each other. Hey, you guys won what you wanted: You got each others commitment: Enjoy it! Jim could have stopped a lot of things earlier had he not been so self-absorbed in his own business (whatever that is) and communicated in the first place. I suspect he spends a lot of time getting his sermons off the internet. And, yes, I inadvertently discovered that early.

Afterthought: I do not think it reflects all Baptists or all Baptist Churches. Just the clique within this one, and it is not clear yet how far  reaching it is within the boundaries of that church, but I am guessing that since “birds of a feather flock together” that it is far more reaching then I care to guess.

And, in case anyone involved in the situation reads this, let me get you to think about this: Jim painstakingly approached both Carol and “A” (even met her for lunch (which BTW,  “A” wrote me after some dialogue and said:  “thank God for grace…and for your sense of humor. You get it, too. lol)”, then after their lunch meeting, she took it all back)  in order to fix what he is now claiming is misunderstanding on their part, but “bullying” by me, but not once, even in the time I was going there, even in the time I openly disagreed with him, he NEVER EVER made ANY attempt to reconcile or make any amends with me whatsoever. And I am really not that hard to get along with and have no problem on many issues to simply agree to disagree.

785-313-0780 (Text on 09-09-09 @ about 7 PM) Manhattan misswhite20072002@yahoo.comt

Why I Date the Church and May continue to do so Indefinitely

[c] 2009 by Zorek Richards

In response to Josh Harris’ “Stop Dating the Church”

The basic teaching suggests that too many people only casually “date” the church and get involved with little to no commitment when he suggests that they should be doing more. The problem with the book is that it acts as a cheerleader for people to not date the church, but does not relate any real problems with the church and reasons why people might not commit. It draws most of its analogies from man/woman dating scenarios. The problem with that analogie is that there are two churches, the worldly one and the conglomeration of people who are part of Christs body.  In marriage, there is either two or none…..(or a third with the chord of three-strands).

I recently sat through portions of a Bible study based around the book by Josh Harris at a local St George Baptist church (Lighthouse). This was a loose study where the “teacher/church pastor” regularly claimed to have “forgotten” the book so unless someone found one for themselves, it was left to him to select what was read. I was familiar with Harris from a previous book he had written called “I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Having enjoyed Harris other dating book, and it had gained much acclaim, I ended up thinking maybe he was just trying to capitalize on a previous success. After all, it is my observation that there is so many religious books being written but most seek a commercial audience, and, hence, follow a pattern which will guarantee a book might sell many rather than being really interested.  There are some diamonds in the mix, but you really have to look hard.

I have since found a copy of the book, and it does add a little more than I heard in the Wednesday night “bible study.”  I remember attending a Baptist mega-church once in Overland Park where a pastor promoted and even gave a copy of a book about giving to all the congregation, and started to use the book in a series of Wednesday night sermons. Having read the entire book, I knew very well there was an issue coming up in Chapter 7 that I know he did not agree with and it would risk his church nest egg if he preached it. Well, he stopped at Chapter 6. Go figure.

On mega churches, Kristin Uhrig on Face Book wrote” After having served on the board of a “mega-church” for three years, I wrote an open letter to the elders to address a glaring problem. We were 5,000 strong on any given weekend, but through surveys we discovered that about 70% of our congregation were unbelievers. of the remaining 30%, about half were disciples and rest were mere converts. The church did not have a single missionary that it supported. There was no question that the leaders of the church had done an outstanding job of marketing. Crowds flowed in and out like the tide…as long as they felt encouraged and entertained. It was, as you have said, very much like serial dating. But year after year, no one had a better knowledge of Scripture, not even the staff…but they had read the latest best-selling Christian book. No one had ever mentioned sin or judgement and the orthodox doctrines of the faith were as dusty and undisturbed as a book on the top shelf in the back of the Library of Congress.” And mega churches, appear to have a mega set of problems that go with it.

The problem I saw through the Wednesday night Lighthouse teaching was the problem differentiating between the church as a whole, and the church as a building. The last night I attended (before its completion),  I had said that there is a problem with the churches image and that needs to be addressed. Jim Lowry, the pastor and teacher of this class,  stated: “If you would have asked that question to some other people they would have scolded you and said the church has no image problem. The church is Jesus Christ and He has no problem.”

That was Jim’s  way of saying that if he didn’t have to be polite in a church meeting, he would have let me have it. Not a surprise since he has generally made efforts to side-step any and all questions I ever brought up in the “study.”  However, the church DOES have an image problem. And that is the issue that has to be addressed. It’s not the angels in the choir, it is the ones pointing to the angels in the choir that are causing problems. I believe that every generation is required to address the issue of their generation. There are groups that are now going so far as to suggest that everyone get out of the church. “Ichabod” could be written across the doors of many of them. However, the church would just paint over it and claim “it must of just been some silly teen vandals.”

I am not an advocate (yet) of getting out of the churches. They have not gone the way of the public school system in which I do advocate that people get their kids out of it if they can.

Oft times the ambiguousness of the Bible is the wisdom of it. Though written in antiquity, it had to reach many generations to come. Many skeptics today claim it is irrelevant because it is so old. What they fail to compare is the fact that science and any philosophy of man has its beginnings in antiquity and was built up on from there. For our purposes it does not say at any place that a person should go to church every Sunday, at least not in those direct words. It hints about worship, and not forsaking the community. “Church” as it might be known back then was rarely a great bunch of sermons, but originally just the church leaders reading from the Law, and then after Jesus, they preached nothing but Christ crucified. This pastor at this local church I mentioned reacted insultingly when I mentioned that in the study and told me it was not so and that there were many instances mentioned int he Bible where men gave personal testimonies to win people to Christ. He, of course, could provide any  evidence of any in a follow up email, except to reference Paul’s testimony as he was being judged. Paul was giving his credentials as a Roman citizen who once persecuted Christians with much zeal, and explained that Christ intervened.

A facebook member, MaryMargaret Amble, wrote: OK, you have hit upon a raw nerve with me here. Religion V God: pretend for a moment you are Satan and you are determined to discredit God and hurt His followers, where would you go to be most effective? The bar? A sporting event? A restaurant? Or the “church” where there are so many who are questioning, challenging, confused and there for the wrong reasons.

Sun Tzu: keep your friends close and your enemies closer. “The church” is prime time for Satan and his works. I have chosen to reject religion, in order to embrace God. I admit that I have to do a lot more work to hear God’s message: but I take on that challenge with my eyes wide open and my heart committed to His word and His message. When I attend church, I never fail to hear and get His message: but at what price? There are good, committed Christians committed to religion, but there is an underlying current of evil, confusion, disinformation and humanity that is inherently flawed. I choose God. I choose Jesus Christ. His message: Love one another. There is too much animosity and judgment within churches. That is Satan’s weapon. Satan is powerful and effective: his greatest weapon is organized religion.”

I would just note that “organized religion” is often a catch phrase which basically means the church as a worldly institution. To the unchurched void of Jesus, that is all they can see. And for the most part they see a social club which attaches the word “God” to it now and again. However, I want to be clear that I am not necessarily sanctioning the person who says “I do not need to go to a church to see God or worship, I can got to nature or any other place.” This may be so, but it is the rare person that actually does that in lieu of a service, and it of more times than not is an excuse to justify there lack of involvement with anything or anyone Christian. I see as equal one of my greatest pet peeves of those who like to say “I will pray for you” as an excuse to not have to get involved personally.

And, on the same token, I realize that since the worldly institution is just that: an institution of churches created in the world by men, that I do not want to suggest getting over critical. People are people and mistakes will be made. There are tares among the wheat. But, I think those things occur in spite of the direction the church and the direction of the church will be clear. If those problems seem to be the dominant theme..than there is a problem with leadership somewhere, and I do not mean Jesus Christ.

The crux of the message by Harris and pastors like Lowry of Lighthouse is that they seem to lament that there is a problem with members commitment, but at the same time, none of these are new pastors. They have been around for awhile. But, rather than point their finger at themselves, they blame the members and potential members for their failings. Pastor Lowry, a former used car salesman, still used that approach but maybe he would do people a favor by going back and selling cars.  The fruit of the dissent in his church is non confidentiality if you counsel with him (in other words, don’t tell him secrets that you do not want heard elsewhere),  and he does not want people he cannot use for his purposes. People like me, who he knows he cannot control, are useless to his purpose and hence he had absolutely no problem in attempting any effort to make me even consider staying at “his” church, with emphasis on the “his.” And I mention that only to maybe strike a chord with some people who experience similar issues……..as I know it is not just a select issue at a the Lighthouse  church in St George, Kansas.

In the end, God will win, and the key is remaining his servant. Pastors every where will dislike my message, save for the few who have a real interest in God, Jesus and preaching only him and Him crucified. Until then, I may need to date the church for awhile just to keep my commitment to the real church, ie, the body of Christ.