OHIO
Dayton Daily News
By Ellen Belcher
Dayton Daily News
I know the Rev. Thomas Kuhn only from afar, as in from the balcony of Incarnation Church where I attend services. He was a priest at Incarnation from 1989 to 2001, when he left for St. Henry Church.
Kuhn's homilies were memorable partly because of the authority with which he spoke. When he issued edicts against, say, coming early and saving seats on Christmas Eve, everyone laughed, but people knew that he wasn't kidding.
He also once told a story about how he had unintentionally cut off someone on an exit ramp and was rewarded with a nasty hand gesture from the offended driver. He said he was pretty certain the driver attended Incarnation because, as he whizzed by, he crouched down after realizing whom he had just gestured at.
Let that be a lesson to the guilty party, Kuhn admonished kiddingly, as people looked left and right in the pews to see if anyone was blushing.
Maybe you had to be there to appreciate the presence Kuhn could command, but that's one of the things people say about him: That he was good at getting his way and communicating that what he said was gospel.
It's this sense that he's not to be questioned that makes him behave as if he's still calling the shots even though he's been convicted of public indecency, six counts of furnishing alcohol to minors and four counts of allowing minors to possess or consume alcohol in his home.