In many ways I am glad to see issues relating to the Bible and Christianity once again being heatedly debated on the opinion pages of the Daily.

I can only hope this time around, the results of this debate are critical thinking and intelligent discussion rather than bickering and arguments based upon caricatures of one’s opponents beliefs.

I first urge all writers to research their statements and back up their opinions with facts. There are many ideas going around about what Christians believe and what the Bible says. Some of them are true and some of them aren’t — and it certainly won’t hurt anyone to spend a little bit of time studying out these subjects to find out the truth.

Let us also not forget we are very fortunate to live in a nation that allows freedom of expression in media such as the Daily. Each of us has the right to state our opinions and beliefs. We also then have the choice of whether or not to partake of the opinions offered by others. For me, to state I believe Christianity is true, or sex outside of marriage is wrong is not to shove my belief down anyone’s throat.

I am simply expressing what I believe to be true. I could provide reasons as to why I believe these statements, and based on this you could chose to agree or disagree.

Then, anyone with a contradictory view could write in with opposing evidence and you would once again have the choice to ignore, agree with or disagree with the writer. This is a key element of freedom of expression. It would be sad to see a debate muffled by a few people who feel if someone expresses an opinion different from theirs, then that person is automatically “shoving it down the throats” of others.

I think it is already true most people don’t take the opinion page in the Daily very seriously. I recently asked a number of friends and classmates what they thought of the Daily opinion pages.

Most of them said they read them, but not to become informed about the various positions people hold about campus issues. Many of these people read the Daily opinion pages to find out what unintelligent or provocative statements have been made.

I have literally seen many people laugh at letters or columns that the writers probably wanted to have people take seriously. It would benefit the ISU community greatly if college students and other readers of the Daily could show the maturity to have a reasoned debate on the pages of the Daily about the issues we face here. This is not to say this has not happened to some extent, but improvements in this area could certainly be made.

The bottom line is this: We have the wonderful opportunity to express ourselves in print on the opinion pages of the Daily — do your research and use your privilege wisely!

Kirsten J. Skelly

Junior

English