You are probably curious about why a retired Alabama circuit judge established a website!
Here is your answer:My Ideas
The felt need to publish the ideas and writings described on the Home page and this page inspired the creation of this website. But to explain how these ideas developed, I needed also to tell my story, and describe the things that caused the ideas to develop. Publishing the website enabled me the ideas several ways, including opinion editorials, laity talks and other writings and ideas that developed during my career.
My Story
In an earlier era, I would likely have written a book of memoirs. But we are into a new age. I can preserve memories electronically. My ideas are inseparable from my story, and this website allows me to describe the environment in which the ideas contained in my books developed, and the writings found on this website help to present a complete picture.

Dale's Ideas and Story
The ideas presented on this website arose in the experience of rich and full life: a birth into a two room shack in rural Macon County, Alabama at the outset of US participation in World War II, a childhood in depression-like conditions in rural Alabama; education in a very small white public school in a mostly Black county, Huntingdon College, the University of Alabama Law School; election as a Circuit Judge in a rural Alabama Circuit; strong participation in judicial education, both as student and presenter; lifelong participation in United Methodist Church activity, many opportunities as a UM Lay Speaker, service as Lay Leader of the Alabama West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church; Alumni work and service as a Trustee, including chairing the board of trustees for Huntingdon College; and intense reading in philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology and history all the while.
A Work in Progress
Please understand that this website is a work in progress. It will never be finished! None of the work is necessarily complete. In this accordion I will briefly describe and the various categories.
Human Faith Within a Conscious Biosphere
This collection of essays containing my most current ideas has been published by Bookbaby. https://store.bookbaby.com/…/human-faith-within-a…
Conscience and Command,
The original was published in 1994. https://store.bookbaby.com/…/human-faith-within-a...
The second edition, or Conscious and Command, Revisited, is a work in progress that I hope to publish. It will be both a good prologue and a good epilogue to Human Faith Within a Conscious Biosphere. It will show how my thinking has developed, and also provide an example of one of the social systems that I describe in FWCB. It will, suggest the plateau that I had reached in 1994.
My Story
I have only begun this project. I have tried to suggest the beginning of the story, and have outlined the narrative, but I hope to add much more. In summary, I was born in abject poverty, among impoverished people. They bore the poverty without complaint and enjoyed life life was good. In 1944, a school bus came to the front of our two room house, where there was no water, plumbing, electricity or telephone and picked up my older brother Wade and carried him to the public school in Shorter, Macon County Alabama. I caught the same bus to the first grade in the same school in 1948. I try to catch something of the spirit of the community in the episodes that I relate. That is the school to which Mary Christine DeBardeleben returned in about 1945. The missionary work that I describe in telling her story had not ended. The work of the Shorter Public School was excellent, and the story is worth telling, and I include that story. We got an excellent education, but in the 1960’s the little school white school in a predominantly Black county was caught up in the controversies of Civil Rights, while I was at Huntingdon College, and the University of Alabama Law School. It did not survive. But I returned to the County that gave me that education, and that is the environment that gave rise to my ideas. Its all a matter of trying to understand. And being understood. I also tell the story of my work in the United Methodist Church.
Mary Christine DeBardeleben
A work in progress. I am seeking additional information, and hope to publish a formal biography later.
Opinion Essays
Over 30 opinion essays are included. They deal with Law and Race, as well as opinions about the legal system itself and other miscellaneous topics. Most of these were originally published in the Alabama Gazette, but I am likely to add too the collection.
Laity Talks
I served as a lay speaker in the United Methodist Church for over forty years. During that time, I served as Conference Lay Leader of the Alabama West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. I had many opportunities for lay speaking. Not nearly all were written out or recorded, but a fair sampling is included here. It is possible that more will be added as I review my records. If anyone remembers a talk that I made and will remind me of if, I will look, or even reconstruct!
The following posts are samples from the various types of writing found in the menu.
1.13 A Proposal for Fairer Juries
Several of the essays on this website are devoted to concerns about the impact of cultural differences on the effectiveness of law. Those essays recognize that the legal system as it existed, particularly in the South, was a factor in our creating different cultural...
1.14 Law, Economics and the Economics of Law Practice
Everyone probably knows that law and economics are closely tied. Both law and economics are social systems that arise within cultures. Every member of society is affected by participates in both systems. It might be more accurate to say that both law and economics are...
1.15 The Conundrum of Law Practice in Conflict Resolution
In essay 1.14 that introduced the current series dealing with law, economics and the economics of law practice. Several subsequent essays in this series and deal with the economics of law practice. But to understand some of the problems associated with the economics...
Continuing Judicial Education: A Proposal for Study and Analysis
I. BACKGROUND FOR THE PRESENT PROPOSAL At the August meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Trial Judges, the Education Committee was asked to look into the matter of standards for judicial education. As Vice Chair of the...
The Goal of Judicial Education
New Judges Orientation Session...
Foundations in Pluralism: An Opportunity for Dialogue
President Bill Clinton recently called for a greater dialogue about the problems of racism. His call underscores the reality that the problems associated with racial division have not been ended by the efforts of Civil-Rights era legislation and court decisions. The...
A Proposal For The Connectional Process Team
I. The Task of the Connectional Process Team A. The Assignment We have been assigned the task of leading the United Methodist Church in a transformational direction. The direction in which we are to lead is not completely undefined. The general conference...
1) An Account Dale’s United Methodist Church Activity
I joined the Methodist Church[1] at Bradford’s Chapel in Macon County in 1958 at age 16 on profession of faith. I had been involved in the Methodist Youth Fellowship for several years. My...
1.16 A Law and Economics Primer
In the previous essay in this series, I pointed out that the economics of law practice can actually impede the ability of the legal system to efficiently resolve disputes. In other essays in this series, I discuss in depth the economic motivations of both defense...
1.17 Economic Motives of Defense Attorneys
This essay is the fourth in a series dealing with the economics of law practice. In earlier essays in the series, I described the strong relationship between law and economics. I pointed out that because the practice of law is a business, the economic motivation of...