Father David Epps's blog

Santa Claus, USMC

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:58:32 -0500

What does Santa Claus look like? He may just look like a United States Marine. In 1947, according to the national Toys for Tots website, when Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children, Toys for Tots was born. The idea came from Bill’s wife, Diane.

Once, I knew everything

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:32:57 -0500

When I was a young pastor, 24 or 25 years old, my denominational supervisor offered me a book on theology by Karl Barth. I declined his gift and said that I didn’t need it.

“Always faithful” for 234 years

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:16:14 -0500

Some would say that it not surprising that the United States Marine Corps was born in a bar — a tavern, actually. On Nov. 10, 1775, the Continental Congress formed the Continental Marines. Captain Samuel Nicholas was commissioned as the first officer in the Corps on Nov. 28, 1775, and set up the first recruiting post in a tavern.

Remembering the saints

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:38:06 -0400

In some parts of the Church world, the “saints” are those men and women whose lives are so exemplary and in whom such love and grace was manifest that, after their death, they were declared to be “saints,” worthy of veneration and imitation.

Sexual addiction

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:10:01 -0400

The October 2009 edition of Healthy Cells magazine featured an interesting article on sexual addiction. Nashville resident David Kyle Foster, a minister of my acquaintance who deals with a plethora of “sexual brokenness issues,” has stated that, on any given Sunday, seated in a 16-person pew are 12 people who are having issues with some form of sexual dysfunction or brokenness.

Screaming children & ‘that look’

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:13:10 -0400

Worse, perhaps, than the terrible sound made by fingernails on a blackboard is the sound of a child screaming. Of course, parents don’t view the sound the way that bystanders do.

The lady from Yugoslavia

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:25:50 -0400

“So where are you from?” the lady asked as she was cleaning my hotel room in Florida.

“I’m from near Atlanta,” I responded. “And where are you from?” I inquired.

Eat the green olives

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:53:13 -0400

When I was a sophomore in high school, I dated a young lady named Pam. She and I were attending a youth party sponsored by my Methodist church and, at some time during the evening, I wandered over to the piano and began playing, “Louie, Louie,” the only song then, or now, that I could play.

Bishop arrested in Phoenix, Arizona

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:59:23 -0400

Bishop Rick Painter, rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King in Phoenix, Ariz., was recently arrested and twice convicted of a crime. His offense? What was it that would prompt law enforcement officials and the judicial system to focus on the 68-year-old bishop of a cathedral?

Thoughts on cathedrals

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:38:30 -0400

Like most people growing up in America, when I thought of a cathedral, that which came to mind were those magnificent structures scattered around Europe that were constructed somewhere in the Middle Ages. If the building is huge and ornate, I reasoned, it must be a cathedral.

Have we forgotten?

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:55:07 -0400

One of the great strengths of Americans is that we have historically been able to put the past behind us and move forward.

War is hell

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:39:41 -0400

“War is hell,” said General William T. Sherman in 1864. The politicians speak of the honor of war and the poets speak of its glory but the soldiers and the victims know the real truth… war is hell.

Paying it forward

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:14:14 -0400

In 1996, Christ the King Church began in my living room. Within a few weeks we had outgrown the space (it doesn’t take very many people to outgrow a living room).

The danger of the dominant partner

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:46:56 -0400

In England, the Charity Tribunal, a judicial body, has ruled that Catholic Care, the adoption agency for the Diocese of Leeds, must cooperate with homosexual couples who wish to adopt children, according to a news item in The Catholic World Reporter. The agency now faces a terrible choice.

The trial

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:15:05 -0400

I was put on trial last week. I didn’t even know that I had committed an offense but there I was facing a judge with a prosecutor and defender on either side of me.