Fresh Politics, New Media

A new article I wrote on trends in public opinion toward employment discrimination is now available online at The International Journal of Public Opinion Research . The article will later be in print in the journal's special issue on Public Opinion about Gay Rights/Marriage being edited by Paul Brewer . The piece examines evolving views on whether school boards should have the authority to fire known homosexual teachers between 1987-2012 (N=35,578). In the process, I consider whether we have seen a sea change in public opinion on the issue similar to the dynamic we've recently been witnessing with the same-sex marriage debate. As the chart below shows, 51.5% of Americans expressed support for the practice when Pew first started collecting data in 1987. By 2012, only 21% of Americans still expressed support for the practice. These individuals are what researchers call the hard core , those who retain minority viewpoints in the face of majority opposition. As the results sugge...

Bill Keller, the Executive Editor of The New York Times , has an interesting piece in this Sunday's NYT  Magazine . In the essay, Keller suggests that: "w hen it comes to the religious beliefs of our would-be presidents, we are a little squeamish about probing too aggressively." Keller is correct in making his claim about our reluctance to ask the hard questions regarding religion. In the piece, Keller subsequently argues that we need to ask candidates for honest answers about their religious beliefs, their adherence to religious doctrine and deference to biblical authority, and the influence that religious values and convictions play in shaping attitudes toward science and social policy. In other words, understanding what a candidate believes and how they apply these beliefs to political and national life is of paramount importance. As an academic who studies how religious and ideological value predispositions shape public opinion and political participation , I ca...