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.
Some of you get these entries sent to you via email (ala Feedburner). For reasons beyond me, the most recent entries are not coming through with any links embedded. I have no idea why and will work to try and figure it out. Sorry for the inconvenience. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and so my thoughts […]
We watch MSNBC for most of our news these days. We watch it each primary night for hours. We were drawn to MSNBC because of Keith Olbermann and “Countdown.” But I’m not even going to mention him here. Because what we’ve come to love about their shows is the smartness of all of their pundits….folks […]
Speaking of my favorite podcasts, I haven’t mentioned “Art and Soul” lately. This is really a shame, since many of the guests the past year have been close friends. If you haven’t heard of “Art and Soul of North Texas,” it’s a podcast created by my friend, Shelly Niedbuhr –quite an accomplished artist herself– that […]
“This I Believe” was a marvelous radio feature created decades ago by legendary radio man, Edward R. Murrow. In the modern era, it’s been revived by NPR and independent producer, Jay Allison. I listen to it faithfully, via podcast, and I highly recommend the series to you. Basically, “ordinary people from all walks of life” […]
We got some pretty serious rain through here last night, but nothing like what my sister and her husband, Chris, got down in Austin. On her picture blog, she sez this: Quite a storm blew through Austin at 1 am on May 15, 2008. Everything facing west got the brunt of the wind and hail […]
Thanks for the many notes and emails about Dennise’s surgery. It’s now Wednesday night, and Maria and I have just returned from the hospital and a late afternoon visit. The surgery went perfectly…no complications. There is a pathology being run, but the doc says, from the looks of things, no bad news is expected. Dennise […]
The Judge will be going into a Presbyterian Hospital on Wednesday, for surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. She’s expected to be there there until at least through Friday, possibly Saturday. Please pray for Dennise, the surgeons and staff, and Maria and me. More later, after we’re home…and probably no other entries for some days…EF […]
As I alluded to briefly, earlier this week the General Conference of the United Methodist Church has been meeting in Fort Worth for the past two weeks. I’ve been there almost every day of those two weeks, primarily supporting a cause near and dear to the heart of many in our church: full inclusion of […]
Tonight, Dennise and Maria were watching TV, and some clips of Rev. Jeremiah Wright came on from his National Press Club appearance last night. Among other things, these were clips where he was again blaming the government for AIDS, and calling American soldiers terrorists. The following is a mostly verbatim transcription of the conversation that […]
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