Dear Religion Clause Readers:
Happy New Year! As we enter 2010, I want to again thank all of you who read Religion Clause-- both long time followers and those who have joined us more recently. With the advent of the Obama administration last January, some readers asked me whether there would continue to be sufficient church-state and religious liberty developments to sustain the blog. I think the past year has shown that this should not have been a concern.
It has been a good year for Religion Clause blog. The site meter shows that the blog has attracted over 672,000 visits since it began in 2005. Approximately 241,700 of these visits were registered in 2009-- a 17% increase over 2008. I continue to seek out additional ways for readers to access Religion Clause. This year I added a feed on Twitter (@ReligionClause). So in addition to the standard method of reading Religion Clause at its URL, you can subscribe to RSS feeds on your favorite RSS reader, subscribe by e-mail, find postings on Lexis through Newstex, log onto Twitter or purchase a subscription to read on your Kindle. Scroll to the bottom of the Religion Clause sidebar to click on various subscription options. One warning however: many of these alternative methods of access do not pick up an item a second time when an Update has been added.
Religion Clause's established format of strict neutrality, broad coverage and links to extensive primary source material has made it a widely-recognized authoritative source for keeping up on church-state and religious liberty developments around the world. I am pleased that my regular readers span the political and religious spectrum. So, while the blog represents a rather substantial investment of time on my part, so long as it continues to serve this unique role, I hope to continue it.
This year, moderating comments has become a more difficult issue. First, I have had a significant increase in robo-generated spam comments. Second, while I attempt to allow a very broad spectrum of views and approaches, I have had to delete some comments that are defamatory, repetitive, hostile, irrelevant or which otherwise impair the blog's usefulness as a neutral resource on legal issues and policy developments. Often I am able to moderate comments several times a day, but sometimes there may be a delay of as much as one or two days in my getting to them.
Finally, I want to thank all of you who send me leads to new developments, or who alert me to needed corrections. These help me assure that coverage is complete and accurate. I read all of your e-mails and appreciate receiving them, even though I cannot always acknowledge them. Normally when I blog on a story sent to me by a reader, I mention the sender. If you do not want me to mention you, I will be happy to honor that request if you let me know when sending me information.
Best wishes for 2010!
Howard M. Friedman
