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.
http://vimeo.com/51786712 For all the UMC drives me mad, I’m Methodist to my core, and so thankful that our church puts out messages like this during the holy-days. Merry Christmas, everybody. Related articles War on Advent (sandystrachan.wordpress.com) The REAL War Against Christmas (jaybsnyder.com) Christmas or Stressmas? (moremoneymorechoices.wordpress.com) How to have a happy holiday without spending big […]
I commend to you this blog, written by Autumn Dennis, about her decision to remove herself from the ordination process in the United Methodist Church. Titled, “A Time to Stay and a Time to Leave,” you can find it at RMN today. She describes her recent decision this way: “I cannot pledge to uphold that […]
If you’re here, that means you found me! So, welcome to the new “When EF Talks!” The best/coolest thing about this move is that all the old entries ported over. I can already see that some of the formattings a bit wonky, but I’ll get around to fixing that eventually. As I said in my […]
Cardinal Dolan has revealed way more than he meant to with comments to “Meet The Press” this weekend. Asked about gay marriage, the Cardinal said the Catholic Church had been “outmarketed” on the issue. Outmarketed?!!! Like “Coke vs. Pepsi?” Then it hit me. I remembered the very same reaction to the very first weekend when […]
Wouldn’t it be great if the shoppers saw this in the holiday windows? I’ve written many times about the paradox of these two days, Thanksgiving and Black Friday. My favorite quote on this paradox comes from my preacher friend, David Weber: “Americans stopped for awhile yesterday to give thanks for what they have, then rose […]
It happened again over the weekend. I got an email from a gay man that said this: “Please remove my name from the membership rolls of Northaven Methodist Church and remove me from your email and US mail lists… As a gay man, I feel that I no longer want to be affiliated in any […]
A Sermon Preached at Northaven United Methodist Church, Dallas Texas November 17, 2013 Audio Version of this Sermon: Here Original Bill Holmes sermon text from 1963: Here “History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Does Rhyme.” — Mark Twain Today, we take a special look back at one of the events that most changed our […]
On November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of John F Kennedy in Dallas, Rev. William Holmes, pastor of Northaven Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas preached this sermon. The sermon, and the reaction to it, became its own story, when Walter Cronkite ran an extended excerpt on the CBS Evening News, and Rev. Holmes […]
In my last blog, I noted that sports statistics and political statistics are wonky pursuits of mine. They are for lots of folks. In both cases, one of the reasons we love them is that they give us “bragging rights.” Who’s the greatest college football team of all-time? Go to the stats. They’ll tell you. […]
As I’ve said many times, I love to analyze political data the way some folks love to analyze sports statistics. (OK, I love to do it with sports statistics too…) Now and then, you may have heard me make the assertion that Dallas County has turned “Blue” and that it is unlikely to turn back, […]
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