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.

Yes We Can

November 6, 2008.Reading time 4 minutes.

(link) It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom. Yes, we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against […]

What We Need to Hear After the Election

November 5, 2008.Reading time 10 minutes.

Just dropped my daughter off at school. And there I took a brief peek at the election underway. The front sidewalk has sprouted dozens of signs for local candidates. There were even a few workers out for the two statehouse candidates from our district. The school is clearly braced for a huge turnout. They moved […]

How Jan Sanders Spent All Saints Sunday

November 3, 2008.Reading time 4 minutes.

Jan Sanders the widow of Judge Barefoot Sanders. Barefoot, as some will recall, is the legendary Federal Judge from here in Dallas who died about a month ago. Northaven has been Jan and Barefoot’s spiritual home for more than three decades, as they raised a family and served the community, and we were honored to […]

Universal health coverage should be the federal government’s responsibility

October 18, 2008.Reading time 23 minutes.

This blog is about health care. But it could just as easily be about the financial crisis, the war, the environment, education, or any number of social issues before us today. Because, to my mind, there is a great confluence among the issues of our day. You can analyze them through the same lens and […]

Doobies Brothers and Elton John: October 4th

October 3, 2008.Reading time 5 minutes.

Connections Band is proud to announce our new show, and hopes you’ll come hear us this Saturday night. The new show is a tribute to Elton John and the Doobie Brothers. We continue to push ourselves musically with this great tribute show. Connections Band: Tribute to the Doobie Brothers and Elton John Saturday, October 4th, […]

Judge Barefoot Sanders Memorial Service

October 2, 2008.Reading time 1 minute.

Sometimes soon, when time permits, I’ll blog more fully on the life of Judge Barefoot Sanders, our friend and church member who died this past week. His memorial service was at our church a week ago today, and sometime this week we’ll be adding a video page to the church’s website so that folks can […]

Sarah Palin Owes Some Good People an Apology

September 7, 2008.Reading time 14 minutes.

I’ve been bothered by a snippy comment from Sarah Palin’s speech the other night, and have wanted to write about it. But Jim Wallis beat me to it. So, this morning, I will simply cite a few of the highlights of his fine blog –whose title I have borrowed as the title of this one– […]

A Photo History of Community Organizers

September 7, 2008.Reading time 1 minute.

Wow. The repost of my little blog, expanding on Jim Wallis’ original ideas, has been burning up the wires over at DailyKos this afternoon. It spent a better part of the afternoon as the top “recommended” journal, and is on the way to having 400 comments. Wow. This issue clearly touches a button. I certainly […]

Would it be Wrong to Pray for Rain?

September 2, 2008.Reading time 23 minutes.

I posted the video that inspired this question to my Facebook page, and it got a couple of nice comments. So I thought I’d expand my thinking on it into a blog entry. The question for this blog is: Would it be wrong to pray for rain? The answer is: it depends, I suppose. If […]

Why Did McCain Pick Palin?

August 31, 2008.Reading time 28 minutes.

I mean the above question this way: What does this pick say about his judgement? It’s an important question, because for months McCain’s been crowing about how judgment and experience are important. So, given what we know –or rather, what we don’t know– about Sarah Palin, why this person? why this woman? and why right […]