Author: ericfolkerth

Eric Folkerth is a minister, musician, author and blogger. He is Senior Pastor of Kessler Park UMC United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. Previously, he was pastor at Northaven UMC in Dallas for seventeen years. Eric loves to write on topics of spirituality, social justice, music/art and politics. The entries on this blog reflect that diversity of interests. His passion for social justice goes beyond mere words. Eric was arrested at the White House, defending immigrants and “The Dreamers;” and he’s officiated at same sex weddings. Eric was the 2017 recipient of the prestigeous Kuchling Humanitarian Award from Dallas’ Black Tie Dinner. (Human Rights Campaign) Eric has led or co-led hundreds of persons on mission trips to build houses and bring medical care around the globe, to places such as Mexico, Haiti, Russia, Guatemala, and Nepal. He is proud of have shephereded Highland Park UMC's construction of ten Habitat for Humanity homes, (and one Community Center) and helped forge an alliance with Habitat that led to the construction of 100 homes in Dallas, housing thousands of people. His wife, Justice Dennise Garcia, has 20 years experience as a state district judge and appelate justice in North Texas. First elected in 2004, she was the first Latina ever elected to a Dallas County state district bench, and she she left that position whe was the longest currently serving district judge. In 2020 Dennise Garcia was a elected as a Justice of the 5th District Court of Appeals for Texas. She is currently running to be Chief of the 5th District Court of Appeals in the 2024 cycle. They have the world’s best daughter, Maria, who is a practicing professional counselor in Dallas. Find links to Eric’s music-related websites, at the top of this site’s navigation menu.

“Moral Licensing” (You Need to Know About It)

August 3, 2016.Reading time 10 minutes.

“Why wasn’t there a whole new generation of Barack Obamas?” It’s a question Audie Cornish asked Gwen Ifill during an NPR interview last week. A year after President Obama’s first election in 2008, Ifill wrote a compelling book: “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” The thesis of the book was that […]

Windows and Doors

August 1, 2016.Reading time 2 minutes.

At the last of the five San Antonio missions. Espada is definitely my favorite. Such a sense of the holy here. The last of the five on the mission trail. On my bike today, so it’s a kind of pilgrimage to get here. The last time I was here, perhaps because it had been a […]

Faithful, Patriotic And Progressive

July 29, 2016.Reading time 16 minutes.

Perhaps a decade ago now, I got a call from a reporter with The Dallas Morning News who was working on a story, and wanted to interview me. The story was on the so-called rise of “Progressive Christian Churches.” We talked on the phone for about an hour. She sent a photographer to the church […]

Keep Hope Alive

July 26, 2016.Reading time 12 minutes.

As I watched Bernie Sanders’ speech last night at the Democratic National Convention, I was taken back to 1988, and the night Jesse Jackson spoke. I had voted for Jesse Jackson in the primaries, and was a big supporter of his that year. This followed two straight previous elections where I had voted for Ronald […]

Sermon In Response to the Dallas Shootings

July 10, 2016.Reading time 23 minutes.

This is different, isn’t it? We’ve been here before. We’ve been in church, the Sunday after some mass shooting…somewhere…and we’ve viscerally felt the horror and the shock. You’ve heard me preach on those Sundays. But this is so different. This is our home. Our city. Violence toward our police. In our downtown, where some of […]

“A great time to be alive…” (My Eulogy for Jack Evans)

July 2, 2016.Reading time 24 minutes.

Jack Evans was truly a larger than life human being who, along with his husband George, got too live through momentous and positive changes for LGBTQ people. I have said many times, say it again now, Jack and George have taught my wife and me a lot about what it takes to make a relationship […]

Signs That Are More Than Ink On Paper

June 16, 2016.Reading time 25 minutes.

When I was a kid, there was a program called “Helping Hands” that was supposed to help kids feel safe. The idea was that families would put a paper sign inside the front windows of their house. The sign was a very simple hand print. The theory was that if a kid was ever walking […]

The Greater Tragedy

June 14, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

“The greater tragedy is that these deaths are being politicized by those who have an agenda…” During the past two days, I’ve heard this statement on social media, from writers right, left, and center. This kind of empty rhetoric gets tossed out at a time like this. And sometimes it gets embraced as a moderate, […]

Written Down in Blood and Ink

May 23, 2016.Reading time 12 minutes.

“Place these words I’m speaking on your heart and in your very being. Tie them on your hand as a sign.” Deuteronomy 11:16 I pulled the trigger. I got my tattoo. As I’ve been threatening to do for months now, I got the words “Fear Not” in Biblical Greek inked on my left inside forearm. […]

Of Bathrooms and Johnny Manziel

May 13, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Eric’s video message for this week, talking about the fake danger of Trans people and bathrooms, verses the very real dangers of domestic violence.