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Kaine urges Liberty to reverse decision
Liberty pulls plug on Democratic club
Falwell Jr.: Media has misrepresented LU’s decision
Leaders of the now-defunct Liberty University College Democrats group are reticent to accept Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.’s latest proposal, which could allow college sponsorship of the group, albeit with a modified charter and different sponsor, group representatives said Saturday.
Brian Diaz, president of the group, said Falwell suggested Friday evening that the group affiliate with Democrats for Life of America, a national organization that specifically opposes abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty.
“We’re weighing our options, and that’s definitely an option, although it has come to my attention that the Democrats for Life organization … (does) not endorse anyone at all that would be pro-choice,” Diaz said.
Falwell said Saturday the appeal of Democrats for Life is their single-issue focus, that single issue being very much in line with the position of the university.
The goal of Democrats for Life of America is to support pro-life Democrats and “promote a pro-life plank in the Democratic Party platform,” according to their Web site, http://www.democratsforlife.org.
“Other than that, they call themselves Democrats, but they don’t have a platform similar to the Democratic National Committee that includes all these other positions that are not pro-family values and are not pro-life,” Falwell said.
Though Diaz, 18, said he disagrees with the pro-choice movement, an affiliation with the strictly pro-life group could be problematic if the college group wanted to support a candidate who held pro-choice views.
“There are other issues that come into play,” he said, especially if the current democratic president decides to run for re-election.
“If we were to charter under the Democrats for Life organization,” Diaz said, “we would not be able to endorse or campaign for, or do anything for Barack Obama and his re-election run.”
Under the Liberty University College Democrats constitution, adopted in November of 2008, the group specifically aligned itself with the philosophical ideals of the Democratic Party.
“The College Democrats pledges itself to support the philosophy and candidates of the Democratic Party,” reads the document.
The charter also pledges that the members of the group “will take a pro-life stance and support the traditional form of marriage.”
Falwell said that, in an attempt to find an organization Liberty students could affiliate with, he contacted presumptive Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell.
McDonnell, Falwell said, pointed him in the direction of Democrats for Life.
Maria Childress, the college group’s adviser, said she’s skeptical of affiliating with the organization specifically because of its Republican support.
“Given the original force being Bob McDonnell,” Childress said, “that is a little bit contrary to the mission of our club.”
Childress, Diaz and Falwell all expressed a desire to continue the discussion, hopefully ending in a resolution that would let the group once again be sponsored by Liberty.
“We want to uphold the university, although we do have different views politically,” Diaz said, adding “Hopefully we can come up with a compromise.”
“It’s just an idea,” Falwell said. “There may be other compromises that would work, but that’s just an idea that we came up with.”
Childress said though the discussion is still going on, she doesn’t believe the current suggested course is the right one.
“Right now we are inclined to decline (the offer), because we want to have the freedom to stand up for who we believe in, and who we believe would be the best option,” she said.
“Obviously, our next step is to try to work out a compromise with the university,” Childress said, “so that we can still be active in our present state, but at this point we don’t have anything concrete.”
Reader Reactions
LU Grad 1996 & 2002, I learned of the decision made by LU regarding the democrat club on campus and I was wondering when they will do the same about the republican club. Why tolerate a club that supports immoral, un-Biblical, anti-Christian positions like the republicans do, either? Let’s face it, based on the pathological lying issue alone, no Christian should ever vote for a republican. Wonder when the pulpit at TRBC will stop being so very quiet about real moral and social issues ‘since Jerry’s death’ (to borrow an unfortunate phrase of yours)? We have been engaged in a war started in lies and nurtured in deceit and have found ourselves unable to simply disengage due to the destruction. We will dish out the death penalty for certain murders in our country, but will not prescribe the death penalty for a soldier who rapes an underage Iraqi girl and kills her family in cold blood. Claiming to be against welfare, we willingly engage in corporate welfare while seeking to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, simplistically blaming the poor for their own predicament, issuing blanket pronouncements instead of examining individual reasons for the situations. We build more and more prisons, continue to underfund education, look the other way about healthcare realities, seek slick ways around social realities by doing what is “legal” rather than what is “right,“ and the list goes on and on and on, and barely a peep from the pulpit of TRBC. Either social issues matter or they don’t. Let’s regain our senses and shamelessly embrace what is a demonstration of the reality that whether one is Baptist or atheist or Catholic or Hindu or Methodist or Jewish or Presbyterian or Muslim or Episcopalian or Buddhist or Christian is not what is the definition of our national governmental policy. It is not necessary to become a theocracy in order to address social issues. Being “Christian” and being “moral” are not identical concepts, just as being “Christian” and being “spiritual” are not identical concepts. LU Grad 1996 & 2002, contrary to what may be a fluid notion in your mind or in The Mountain city, it is not necessary to be a Baptist to be Christian, it is not necessary to be a Baptist to be spiritual, and it is not necessary to be Baptist to be moral.
What, you mean LUgrad 1996 and 2002 needs to go back to college to learn the same thing again. Wow how lacking in intelligence can one be?
OOPs correction FOR instead of Against
What is wrong with parents to send and allow their children to go to a school that claims to be Pro-Life yet is FOR the death penalty. As Junior states “the Democratic Club cannot use Liberty with their name because of the anti-life candidates they support”. Such a hypocrite you are junior to claim you are pro-life yet support the death penalty Republicans club with Liberty in its name. Isn’t that having your cake and eating it too?
LU Grad - Sooner of later the UN-enlightenment has to happen. Perhaps after 2012 the whole stinky armagedden/rapture business will be put on a back burner and we can get back to acting like a fairly rational nation.
LU is no better than the Taliban in the extremism of their beliefs. True they haven’t become militant - yet. But I can tell by the language of your post that you would be one all to eager to brow-beat us all into submission to Jesus and the BUY-BULL, and if brow beating doesn’t get the results, I’m sure literal beatings will follow.
What is wrong with parents to send and allow their children to go to a school that claims to be Pro-Life yet is against the death penalty. As Junior states “the Democratic Club cannot use Liberty with their name because of the anti-life candidates they support”. Such a hypocrite you are junior to claim you are pro-life yet support the death penalty Republicans club with Liberty in its name. Isn’t that having your cake and eating it too?
I just learned of the decision made by LU regarding the democrat club on campus and I was cheering as I read. Since the death of Jerry Falwell I have been very worried about the changing tone from LU/TRBC. Jerry was such a culture warrior; he took such a firm stance against abortion, gay rights, feminism, stem cell research, etc. He made us feel like we were the one’s who are normal and the rest of the world is crazy. I was so disappointed to find out that LU had approved a democrat club on campus. Why tolerate a club that supports immoral, un-Biblical, anti-Christian positions? Let’s face it, based on the abortion issue alone, no Christian should ever vote for a democrat. I am so proud of LU. I was beginning to think the university had surrendered the culture war. By the way, the pulpit at TRBC has been very quiet about moral and social issues since Jerry’s death. We just elected the most liberal president in our nation’s history and barely a peep from the pulpit of TRBC. Either social issues matter or they don’t. Let’s regain our moorings and shamelessly embrace conservative political issues and fundamental baptist doctrine.
Since the club is not “banned”, couldn’t they simply name the organization “Liberty Student’s Democratic Club”, thus avoiding the registered trademark??
Does this also suggest that we, as Lynchburgers, should oppose the registration of the trademark “Liberty Mountain” now pending (as serial number 77648519) before the US Patent and Trademark Office? If we do not oppose the new trademark registration, will we at some future point be limited by some private mission statement?
OK,
Mr./Mrs/Ms Lablover gets the [“Mother Theresa, Christ in your heart, God is Love”] Award for the magnificent—-
—-“a meaningless group of malcontents who oppose all that LU stands for and who mean little in the grand scheme of the greater interests of Lynchburg”—-
Phew! that’s a beauty.
But aren’t we forgetting something? Shouldn’t we cut the guy some slack? Come on. He meant well. How would you feel if on the anniversary of your dads death you whipped out your Bible and then proceeded to step on it?
These are kids. There eyes are full of hope. They ain’t bad guys. They just want to try out their brains, that’s all.
Statements from the pres of the club and its adviser in this article prove that they lied to university officials when they said they would support pro-life candidates. Their statements here are direct evidence as to why the group was closed as an official university club.
The support of the death penalty is NOT a pro-life position. Yet, the Republican party strongly supports the death penalty. I have not heard of any repercussions for students supporting Republican candidates who also support the death penalty.
No one seems to care about this statement, “The charter also pledges that the members of the group ‘will take a pro-life stance and support the traditional form of marriage.‘ Politics is not about agreeing with a candidate’s position on every single issue. It is about supporting a candidate that holds your views on a few issues that you care most about and has a chance to do something about them. Democrats are not only about abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage. These are just the issues that get the most reaction. They are also about pushing for affordable, quality health care for all Americans, and they take great efforts to try to reduce poverty. Neither of these violates Christian beliefs. There are still many more Democratic positions on issues that are not contrary to Christian beliefs.
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