Merry Christmas, Everybody

December 5, 2013.Reading time less than 1 minute.

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 […]

Autumn, And The Far Too Long Line

December 4, 2013.Reading time 10 minutes.

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 […]

Welcome, Again.

December 4, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

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 […]

Holy Crap! You Still Think This is a Stunt, Don’t You?

November 30, 2013.Reading time 7 minutes.

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 […]

Thanksgiving/Black Friday Reminder…

November 28, 2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

The Heartbreaking Dynamic

November 25, 2013.Reading time 19 minutes.

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 […]

Looking Back At the One Thing Worse: The Legacy of Prophetic Preaching

November 18, 2013.Reading time 28 minutes.

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 […]

One Thing Worse Than This

November 17, 2013.Reading time 13 minutes.

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 […]

Hey Austin: Dallas Is Texas’ Bluest County (Yes. I’m Throwing Down)

November 16, 2013.Reading time 5 minutes.

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. […]

Presidential Voting in Dallas County Since 1960

November 16, 2013.Reading time 11 minutes.

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, […]