Just a quick note about my new column and a current issue

Hello, kind subscribers. First of all, I wanted to let you know that my plan is to post a new column on Wednesdays. Having always been an academic writer rather than an up-to-the-minute journalistic writer—different skill sets—I will do my best to have something worthy of your time on a weekly basis.

Second, this is more of an alert or even a shameless plug. In view of the news about Louisiana now requiring the posting of “the Ten Commandments”—a central issue is always, whose Ten Commandments?—I thought I’d give you a link to a book I wrote a dozen years ago about the question of whether there is a religious character to American citizenship and identity. The title is The Constitution of Religious Freedom: God, Politics, and the First Amendment (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781602584198/the-constitution-of-religious-freedom/). In some ways I anticipated the contemporary argument over what is called Christian Nationalism, and I may offer a column on the topic if I can figure out a way to do so without just importing chunks of a densely packed book.