Religious Leaders Debate Abortion Issue on 'Meet the Press'
Land, Falwell, Sharpton, and Wallis share their views on religion, politics and moral values that were part of the 2004 presidential election.
Major religious players debated on contentious moral issues, ranging from abortion to the war, that were part of the 2004 presidential election on NBC News’s Sunday show “Meet the Press.”
Dr. Jerry Falwell, who recently founded The Faith and Values Coalition with the purpose of resurrecting the “Moral Majority,” said it is his “prayer” and his “hope” that President Bush “will appoint men or women to the court who will overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Dr. Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told the roundtable-style discussion panel that he believed the President will “appoint justices and appeals court judges who are strict constitutionalists.”
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“If they're strict constructionists, they will overturn Roe,” said Land. “Roe was a horrendous decision. It was a horrendous judicial overreach. It was an attempt to judicially dictate to the American people on basic values, and that should be in the political process and it should be decided by the people.”
Reverend Al Sharpton of National Action Network disagreed with Land, saying that while he would advise his two daughters against abortion, he doesn’t believe the state should make a law against abortion. “There's a difference in values and imposed values,” he said.
Land responded by saying supporters of slavery used the same argument.
“What they forgot was slaves were people, and unborn babies are people. And in this society, no human being should have an absolute right of life and death over another human being,” he said, adding that in abortion the mother is imposing her values on the unborn baby.
Jim Wallis, Editor of Sojourners Magazine, suggested the abortion issue could be addressed through social programs that help reduce unwanted pregnancies.
"Pro-life and pro-choice people could unite together around working on teenage pregnancy, adoption reform, supporting low-income women," he said. "When you support them economically, the abortion rate falls."
When the discussion touched on the issue of war, religious leaders again weren’t able to find common ground.
Falwell cited 2 Chronicles 7:14, saying he believed “that corporately God deals with a nation…and I believe that conversely works if we don't do that that I believe that God can judge us.”
While holding the position that “there is a just war in a theological position,” Falwell noted that he doesn’t believe God loves war.
Wallis told Falwell that there are millions of Christians who would say Falwell didn’t speak for them.
"I think there can be a disagreement about where Christians should have been on that particular war," said Land, who said he supported the war in Iraq. "I believe it met just-war criteria; Jim didn't. That doesn't mean that I'm saying he's not a Christian."
