LITTLE ROCK — For two decades, sharp tongued radio show host Pat Lynch was the guy Arkansans loved to hate.
In 2000, when he was fired from KARN-AM, 920, after a 17-year run, he made no apologies for his biting, often bitter, banter.
“To successfully hold on to a show for as long as I did, you cannot do it by being vanilla,” he said then. “You have to serve up different flavors. You have to be something different from everything else out there.”
His different? Tagging the then-mayor “Jello” Jim Dailey; calling the Arkansas Gazette a commie rag; and receiving dubious awards, one shaped like a giant golden screw and another of a mule’s rear end.
After KARN, he hosted shows at KABZ-FM, 103.7, the Buzz; and Arkansas Priority Radio Network’s KDXE, 1380 AM.
He currently writes a column on Mondays for this newspaper’s “Voices” page and appears in a Wednesday morning segment on KARK-TV, Channel 4.
What else is new? He’s recently tapped into his spiritual side. Lynch, reared a Catholic and now a member of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, recently shared his journey with those attending the Little Rock Media Fellowship’s monthly lunch.
Lynch recently earned a diploma in theological studies from the Anglican School of Ministry here in Little Rock and has been appointed director of Foundations of Christian Ministry.
In the churchwide, part time position, he oversees training programs offered by the Anglican School of Ministry for vocational deacons, planters of new churches, licensed lay pastors, and teachers.
“I am not a good person,” he said. “I don’t pretend to be a good person. The only thing I deserve is to burn in hell. And if it weren’t for the grace of Jesus Christ, that’s where I’d be right now.
“When I got into radio, I bought into the whole ‘I am the captain of my own ship, responsible for my own self’ thing. Winning through intimidation was the American culture.”
But Lynch says he was not happy - the pressure of deadlines and being in the public eye led him to drink heavily and look for a way out of Arkansas.
“Then, I met my wife, Marie, and started drinking less.”
And he started reading the Bible. One verse leapt out - What you meant for evil, God meant for good.
“There it was - all of the back-stabbing, criticism, slamming doors I’d encountered - all that was meant for good.
“I stopped trying to run my own life and save the world. When you start trusting God instead of trying to be the captain of your own ship (which you’re not), you’re able to receive God’s grace and be the dispenser of it.”
Lynch’s disclaimer?
“This doesn’t mean I’m no longer a nasty rattlesnake,” he tells Paper Trails. “It just means I’m a nasty rattlesnake who’s one of God’s creatures.” Paper Trails appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact Linda Caillouet at (501) 399-3636 or at lcaillouet@arkansasonline.com.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 07/16/2010