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.
The Power of Pentecost or the Tower of Babel?
Liberty UMC, Sunday, May 29, 1994 I want to share with you some Scripture before I begin my remarks, and the Scripture that I want to share with you is found in the 11th Chapter of Genesis. It begins with the first verse, and I'll read several verses of that...
(17) Time in Savannah
In 1918, Miss Dee left Paine College and the work at the Bethlehem Center in Augusta. Already, others had taken the lead in the work of the Bethlehem Center. For a period of time, in the latter part of 1918, and in 1919 and 1920, she was in Savannah,...
(17) Buying Shoes
I will have to be honest. Most of the time, us kids didn’t wear shoes. But there were occasions when we needed to have shoes, so arrangements had to be made to purchase them, and I remember what we did about buying shoes when we lived at the little...
The Three Stories
[In my frequent opportunities for lay speaking in numerous churches, I often used one or more of these stories.] Oak Valley Station UMC, October 10, 1993 I appreciate your perseverance. I guess I have been invited at least a half dozen times to be here, and I'm just...
The Role of Suffering and Stress
FUMC Brundidge December, 1997 I came in a little early this morning and sat here as the organist was practicing and soaked up a little of the tradition that exudes from this beautiful sanctuary. And I've enjoyed the music program this morning. I can tell that this...
(18) The Trip to the Gin
One of my most memorable farming events from the Little House years was a trip to the gin. In those days, financing was interesting. For poor farmers, it often involved credit with other people in the farming business. I think that Daddy had borrowed...
(18) A Master’s at Peabody College
Miss Dee enrolled for a Master's Degree in Peabody College in Nashville in the summer of 2016. Her studies continued into the 1917-1918 school year. In 1918-19, there was the mysterious interlude in Savannah that I have not figured out. The record in Miss Dee’s...
Euthanasia
East Tallassee UMC June 26, 1994 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. A...
19) The School Bus
Wade and I both started school while living at the little house. Wade started in 1944, and I started in 1948. I will tell more about the school experience when I get to that topic. In this essay, I want to focus on the school bus. The school...
(19) Oklahoma University
After completing her work at Peabody, Miss Dee taught Bible and religion at Oklahoma University. Her work was commissioned by the Women’s Missionary Council I have included this post, although incomplete, in order to describe the broad outline of the life of Mary...