Democrat club wary of Falwell offer

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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, 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.”