Debaters gives up chance to win tournament based on faith and morals

Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 14, 2004 / 22:00 pm

A Christian college debate team gave up their chance to win a tournament based on their religious beliefs and principles. 

In a recent tournament, the California Baptist University debate team was asked to argue for the reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban of partial-birth abortions, a bill, which President George W. Bush recently signed. But the debate team concluded that they could not argue the topic, based on their moral principles.

"It's not like theater where you role-play and distance yourself from your morals," Mary Pryfogle, 20, captain of the CBU team, told Baptist Press. “We've debated other moral issues that were not as heavy, but Scripture is very clear on this."

Several members of other debate teams and one of the tournament judges congratulated the students for their stance, the news service reported. However, team members said they were surprised Christians from other teams at the tournament decided to go ahead with the partial-birth abortion topic.

"It was very admirable," John Pate, chairman of the CBU communication department, told the news service. "They had other students coming up to them all day long telling them they did a good job. There was a win within a loss. More people noticed their stand for losing rather than winning.”

Matt Taylor, host of the December debate tournament at Cal State Long Beach, said he had never seen anyone forfeit a debate before.