LYNCHBURG — Leaders of the now-defunct Liberty University College Democrats are reluctant to accept Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.’s latest proposal, which could allow college sponsorship of the group, although with a modified charter and different sponsor, group representatives said yesterday.
Brian Diaz, president of the group, said Falwell suggested Friday evening that the organization affiliate with Democrats for Life of America, a national group that specifically opposes abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty. Falwell said the idea of that Democratic group came from Bob McDonnell, the Republican former attorney general running for governor.
“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 the appeal of Democrats for Life is the single-issue focus that is in line with the position of the university.
The goal of Democrats for Life is to support anti-abortion Democrats and “promote a pro-life plank in the Democratic Party platform,” according to its 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 abortion-rights movement, an affiliation with the anti-abortion group could be problematic if the college group wanted to support a candidate who held abortion-rights views.
“There are other issues that come into play,” he said, especially if President Barack Obama runs 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 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,” the document reads.
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 GOP gubernatorial candidate 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 that although 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.”
(Dave Thompson is a staff writer for The News & Advance in Lynchburg.)
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