The articles that are part of this menu tree are articles that don’t necessarily form part of a coherent narrative and that are not directly related to the common theme of this blog, which is the intertwining of politics and religious belief. A number of the articles here have to do with legal and constitutional issues, and draw on my legal background.
What I’m attempting to do here is to simplify and some complex legal issues and try to make them as accessible as possible. Although “accessible” is a relative term. Legal and constitutional issues, by their very nature, are not readily digestible.
So, in these articles I strive to find the line between clarity and oversimplification.
In any case, it’s the kind of analysis we need to have, I believe, if we want to have an intelligent discussion about policy. And, in a number of cases, there is an overlap with religious beliefs. That overlap is most obvious in discussions of the First Amendment, which after all contributes the twin clauses relative to the free exercise and the prohibition on state establishment of religion. In some cases, the relationship is more tenuous but still obvious, such as the discussion of abortion. In other cases, such as the discussion of universal health care, the connection is not obvious at all, and has more to do with critical thinking in general than religious belief in particular.