TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON

Over the past twenty-eight years, I have written approximately 1,456 weekly opinion columns for The Citizen. Although I had written opinion pieces, magazine articles for numerous publications, and hundreds, if not thousands, of news releases over the years, this was to be something different.

In late 1996, I came to the offices of the Fayette Citizen to buy some advertisements for our brand-new church for the Christmas season. Cal Beverly saw me and came over to speak to me and asked if I’d be interested in being a local columnist. An opinion columnist. And so it began. Mostly, over the years, I have told stories. At the core, I am a storyteller both in print and in the pulpit.

At some point, I wrote an article garnering much of my information from internet sources. In the tagline of the printed version, I stated that much of the information for the article came from sources online. The online version of that article inadvertently omitted that statement. A reader castigated me for all the reading public to see, accusing me of plagiarism. I was infuriated. I complained vehemently to Cal who quietly responded, “If you can’t stand being splattered with hot grease, you need to get out of the kitchen.”  It was some of the best advice he could have given me.

An opinion column by its very nature offends someone. Whatever the subject, someone is going to disagree. Any person who expresses an opinion is going to have detractors. Sometimes, though not often, hot grease gets slung.  As a religious leader, I have had to make decisions that sometimes garner the same results. But one must do the best one can and move on. Hopefully, disagreements can remain civil, and people of differing viewpoints can remain in relationships. But not always.

This weekly joy and obligation has forced me to submit to deadlines.

When the Citizen was a print medium, Monday at noon was my drop-dead deadline. With the online version it is slightly more flexible but there is a deadline still. It has caused me to be always thinking about the next week, the next subject, the next column. It has caused me to try to see the merit of opinions that are not my own. It has caused me to disregard the differing opinions of people who are nasty and insulting, whatever they have to say. It has helped to more clearly define and, in most cases moderate, my views on certain subjects.

As with sermons, it is not easy coming up with something fresh every week. And that’s the challenge. That, and trying to produce something that is interesting, informative (even entertaining), and valuable enough that people will either listen to or to read and consider.

I had one man, a reader of the Citizen, stop me in a parking lot and demanded, “Are you that guy that writes for The Citizen?” I said, “I am.” With a scowl, he rejoined, “You sure are opinionated!” I replied, “Well. It’s an opinion column.”

I do not think that I am the smartest person in the room. I do not hold myself out as a symbol of all that is right and holy. I am aware that I am a flawed person. As I said to one woman who asked me why I should be admitted to Heaven, I replied in all sincerity, “If it’s not all about Jesus and His mercy, I got nothing.” Like other people, I am just a guy with an opinion. Okay, LOTS of opinions.

When I was a young person, I played football for eight seasons. Then I laid it down. There was a time that, for three decades, I was a martial artist and even taught karate, over the years, in Tennessee, Virginia, Colorado, and Georgia. When I was 45, I laid that aside. I was a very active law enforcement chaplain (and certified Georgia law enforcement officer) from 1989-2014, serving twenty-five years, before I retired from that avocation.

I have been a columnist for The Citizen for twenty-eight years, have had the privilege of working under the tutelage of Cal Beverly, and have been grateful for a diverse community of readers that have tolerated my musings. For the most part, anyway.

But to everything there is a season. There are some other projects and activities in which I am likely to be engaged, but my time at the Citizen is at its end. Over the years, Cal Beverly has encouraged me to put some of the better columns into a book and perhaps I will do that in the days ahead. Cal, the Citizen editor and publisher, is, as I understand it, retiring after long and faithful service to the community. I can think of no better time than to do the same as a Citizen columnist. Thank you for  taking the time to read and respond over the years. May God bless you all.

David Epps is the Rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King (www.ctk.life). Worship services are on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and on livestream at www.ctk.life. He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South (www.midsouthdiocese.life. He may be contacted at
davidepps@ctk.life.