(I’m just posting this here because the Lebanon Democrat doesn’t have a website)

by Brooks Franklin
Lebanon Democrat, January 10, 2003
Members of a Mt. Juliet church were “looking for answers” after the shocking arrest of their music minister on federal firearms charges, an official says.
Green Hill Baptist Church minister of music Mark Lancaster, 40, of Page Drive remained in federal custody on Thursday, one day after agents of the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco and Firearms confiscated 15 machine guns from his home.
A telephone mssage left at Lancaster’s home went unanswered, as did a message left at the church, which has a website describing the suspect as the congregation’s first full time minister of music since his hiring in 1998.
But a local law enforcement official who is also a member of the church’s congregation said he fielded several telephone calls throught the day from other members “curious” about Lancaster’s arrest.
“A lot of people were calling looking for answers,” said Mt. Juliet Police Chief Kenny Martin. “I think it’s probably troubling for the church.”
Martin whose department sent two detectives to assist ATF agents during the search acknowledged the arrest cretated an “awkward situation” for him as a member of the church.
“But it’s like I told someone else, it just goes to prove that crime really doesn’t know any boundaries at all,” he said.
An ATF spokesperson said Lancaster, describted as cooperative during the search and his subsequent arrest, is believed to have fired three rounds from one of the machine guns into a church bus, though exactly when or why remained unclear.
In afflidavits filed by agents requesting a search warrant, one officer said a telephone caller told AFT agents Lancaster had “converted the Green Hill Baptist Church bus into a shooting range.”
But that statement turned out to be – at least in part – inaccurate, according to ATF spokesperson Mark Leiser.
“It was not converted into a shooting range. It was a bus that had been used… It’s not an old bus that was somewhere out in a field,” he said.
Asked if the bus was in use by the church recently. Leiser replied, “It’s my understanding it was.”
Agents conducting interviews in Mt. Juliet after fielding the telephone complaint saw the three bullet holes in the bus, Leiser said.
The telephone caller also went on to describe Lancaster as “manic depressive, unstable and a Nazi buff,” Leiser confirmed, though he emphasized that agents found no evidence of the suspect was involed with any hate groups.
“There was no evidence at all that he was a Nazi sympathizer or anything like that,” Leiser said.
The unflattering remarks from the anonymous telephone caller are far removed from the description of Lancaster on the church’s website.
There he is described as a man who holds a Master’s Degree in church muisc from Gold Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts in musical performance from the University of South Florida. The website says Lancaster, a married father of two, has also been affilliated in the past with churches in Florida, California and Virginia.
Leiser also confirmed that Lancaster held a federal firearms license as a collector of curios but said he did not possess the proper licenses for possessing the machine guns, some of which were described by an agent as having historical value while others were said to be cheaply manufactured and assembled.
No ammuntion was seized from the home because Lancaster was not violating any federal laws governing possession of ammuntion for machine guns, Leiser said.
Lancaster faces a Jan. 16 hearing before a federal magistrate as well as potentially severe penalties if found guilty. He could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge, officials said.
Authorities are expected to ask the magistrate in custody until his trial which would likely be several months away.

Greetings from Bowling Green, KY. I’m here helping a friend get his webpage up and running. Brian’s got a pretty cool place. It used to be his sister’s but she job a job elsewhere. So now the house is all his own. Complete with the femine touch. So it’s like he’s living at his sister’s house, but she’s not here.
The house is pretty old and has a unique character. Brian keeps it clean (or at least he cleaned up before I came).
Apparently the incident of the dog being killed by the Tennessee Highway Patrol has hit national news sites and everyone is in an uproar about it. Here is the scoop on what happened:
Man leaves wallet on top of his car and drives off. The wallet and money falls off around Mt. Juliet. Nosey motorist calls police to report money all over the interstate. Cops stop the family for robbery. The door of the car is left open and the dog runs toward the officer. Officer shoots the dog dead.
It was a symphony of errors conducted by the THP. It will be a while before they’ll be able to get rid of the bad publicity surrounding that case. The interesting factor is the Mt. Juliet connection on it. There’s always a Mt. Juliet connection.
Yeah, it’s pretty sad. The police overstepped their boundaries there. In their haste to play cops and robbers they did a bad bad thing. But I’m not in an uproar over it. I realize that police shoot dogs all the time. In drug cases where the dog is attacking another officer they have to shot the dog. Police have to make split second decisions and they made a bad one this time.
The family is in an uproar about it and will probably sue and get alot of money over it. Life goes on.
I’ll be leaving for skiing in Paoli, Indiana, today. I’m looking forward to it. Skiing is the only sport which I do relatively well. “Relatively well” means better than most people I know. So it gives me a chance to feel slightly better about myself. I’m sure we’ll have some first time skiers who quit after only the 30 minute lesson. It’s their loss.
The hotel where we’ll be staying at is a tourist attraction within itself. It is fairly old. It is known for its sulfur springs, so when you walk in the door you immediately get a snif of that sulfur.
I’m riding up in a luggage van, so I won’t have to be bothered by the kids for 5 hours. Which is fine by me. The guy who I’m riding up with has experience going to Central America on mission trips. So I’m sure he’ll be able to give me some unique stories.
I am going to El Salvador, pending my job situation in April. I turned in my travel form to the church Wednesday night. I’m looking forward to it. It will give me a chance to experience a new culture and to feel like I made a difference in a 3rd world country. I’m preparing myself for the inconveniences that could happen….and the poverty that I’ll witness. I’m sure many of these people have nothing. I’ve been told that our visit is the highlight of the year for this small village out in the jungle.
Not much else is going on. I’ll be driving back to MJ this morning, so that I can meet up with the church group where I’ll drive right by Bowling Green again on our way to Indiana. Seems like a waste of time, but its really the only way I’ll be going.

The Mt. Juliet Christmas parade is today. They usually schedule it depending when Lebanon’s Christmas parade is….which in turn schedule depending when Nashville’s parade is….which in turn schedule their parade according to if there’s a Titans home game. It was a bad day for a parade. UT is playing Kentucky at 11:30, while the parade was scheduled to start at noon. More people are likely to stay home and watch the game.
The Mt. Juliet High School band isn’t even participating in the parade. A friend of mine who is in the band said that there was not enough people to march. So they decided not to march. I guess many of them were visiting relatives for the Thanksgiving break….or working…. It might cause problems when trying to build community support for the band. Many community leaders could care less about the number of band contests the band goes to throughout the year. They only care about if they show up at the parade. MJ isn’t even going to Lebanon’s Christmas parade.

Tennessee has some kind of lame state law that says each year you have to get your car tested for emissions. It may be nationwide, but for the purpose of this discussion I’m going to assume that the brain dead Tennessee lawmakers drafted this law. Case in point: We had a perfectly good 1989 S-10 pickup truck. It could never pass the emission tests. No matter how finely tuned we got it, it would never pass. We ended up getting rid of it for a newer model. All this because of that stupid law. The burden of passing emissions should not fall on the consumer. Instead it should fall on the car makers. Don’t make joe user have to bend over backward to try to make their car pass emissions. It’s all a big conspiracy between the government and car makers to make us buy newer cars. Don’t get me wrong. I’m for pollution standards all the way. But this is too much.

There is a chapstick shortage in Mt. Juliet. Apparently it was caused by the city officials kissing Walmart’s butt by offering them a tax break if they would build a Super Walmart here. Walmart is already committed to building one in Hermitage, and said thanks but no thanks to the offer. We don’t need a Super Walmart here. It would just create traffic problems. No one is going to drive all the way out here to do their shopping at Walmart. There’s already a Super Walmart in Lebanon.
Mailbox baseball has hit home, literally. This afternoon I found my mailbox scuffed up. The mailbox homerun probably happened sometime last night. I’m not sure what motivates people to be destructive to other people’s property. Sewing their wild oats?
Note to self: Never ever ever ever pay full price for a Pizza Hut pizza. Always use a coupon or don’t buy it at all. Tonight I got a large meatlovers pizza for $11.90. The cost without a coupon: $16….outrageous when you take into consideration you can easily get a large one topping pizza for $7.57.