LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) – Carman Sharp, longtime peace activist and Kentucky Baptist pastor, died March 14. He was 87.
Sharp, who retired in 1984 after 23 years as pastor of Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville, was founder of the Baptist Peacemaker publication in 1979, and served on the Council on Religion and Race as well as the Council on Peacemaking and Religion. In 1984, he was a recipient of the Clarence Jordan Peace Award.
Describing peacemaking as “the only hope I have of my grandchildren reaching maturity,” Sharp challenged fellow Christians in a 1984 interview to “pray every day, earnestly asking God to touch the hearts of leaders who move us toward peace.”
Glen Stassen, professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and a former ethics professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, described Sharp as a “genuine saint” who was “caring, humble, unpretentious, genuine, with integrity through and through.”
Stassen said Sharp showed “great integrity in supporting the Baptist Peacemaker newspaper, the Baptist Peacemaker group in his church, and in inviting Baptists North and South to come to Deer Park for the founding meeting of the Baptist Peace Fellowship.”
Also active in other social causes and ministries, Sharp marched for open housing legislation, helped organize Highlands Community Ministries and was involved in establishing the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He was a graduate of Mississippi College in Clinton and Southern Seminary.
Sharp was preceded in death by his first wife, Caroline, in 1987. He is survived by his wife, Betty, three daughters and a stepdaughter, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.