Author: Douglas R. Sharp
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GUEST COLUMN: Banning books in the US military
This month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Naval Academy to remove 381 books from its Nimitz Library as part of a broader initiative by the Donald Trump administration to eliminate materials related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from federal institutions. Materials in the library’s collection deemed to promote DEI principles were judged to…
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GUEST OPINION: Religious advocacy for affordable housing
We continue to struggle as a society with the problem of providing adequate, affordable, and sustainable housing for all sectors of our communities. We can all see that this conundrum is a social and economic matter, but it is also, and perhaps more profoundly, a deeply moral and spiritual matter. One could argue that the…
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GUEST COLUMN: Religious convictions in public debate
What role should religious convictions play in public debate on issues of public policy? Is it appropriate to argue for or against a particular public policy based on one’s religious beliefs? For example, can I argue against the death penalty because my religious belief system regards taking another human life as morally wrong? Can I…
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GUEST COLUMN: What happens when Christianity declines?
We have known for years that the Christian religious landscape in this country is undergoing extraordinary changes. Fewer people are identifying with a Christian tradition, many are no longer participating in religious activities. Many research organizations have been studying this phenomenon for decades. Most recently, researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute published a study,…
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GUEST COLUMN: Thoughts on the sanctity of life and maintaining a good quality of life
These reflections are not about abortion or frozen embryos, capital punishment or physician-assisted death. It is assumed that different perspectives — social, political, religious — are in play in the discussions of these issues, but this reflection does not contend for one side or the other in those debates. The duty to facilitate and promote…
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GUEST COLUMN: No independent voters – we’re all partisans now
Much is made these days about the growing number of voters who declare themselves to be independent. Mike Allen at Axios writes, “By far the dominant U.S. party isn’t Democrats or Republicans. It’s: ‘I’ll shop around, thank you,’” while Daniel de Visé at The Hill says, “If ‘Independent’ were a party, it could dominate American…
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GUEST COLUMN: Overall goal of DEI programs is respect
Douglas Sharp Why is there such fervid opposition to programs that instill understanding and appreciation for the fact that human beings are different from one another? What has happened to the moral virtue of respect for others in this country? We have unlearned the lessons, taught by all the world’s religions and secular humanism alike,…
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GUEST COLUMN: The random beliefs of American voters
In a seminal 1964 article with the title “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics,” Philip Converse undertook a study of American voters that has turned out to be a classic in the study of voting behavior. His study concluded that the vast majority of people do not have a clear and comprehensive set…
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GUEST COLUMN: Captive to the American oligarchy
It is disconcerting to think that the possibilities for personal freedom and well-being intended by the founders at the birth of our republic have not been realized in the way or to the extent they envisioned. Their experiment in democracy became a work-in-progress for succeeding generations, and we still haven’t quite got it right. In…
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GUEST COLUMN: Democracy and the need to reform Christianity
Christian nationalism refers to a political and cultural ideology that combines elements of Christianity with the idea of a nation-state. Supporters of this view believe that the foundation and identity of a nation should be rooted in a particular interpretation of Christian faith and values and that law and public policy should align with their…