Falwell group denies softening on justice nomination

WASHINGTON – Moral Majority, the con- :lervative lobbying group, said Wednesday it bas :Jiot softened its position on Judge Sandra -O’Connor and that it still has “substantive ..concerns” about her nomination to the Supreme o.urt. : Cal Thomas, vice president of the organi7.lltion, ~ed a statement reasserting Moral Majority’s ppsition after reports that it was falling into line behind President Reagan’s selection of Judge Pi’Connor for the high court. r, ~eanwbile, two religious journals criticized P..resident Reagan for conferring with Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell about the nominatio~. t Falwell, of Lynchburg, Va., has said Reagan 1elephoned him and talked for almost an hour on the day Judge O’Connor was announced as ~an’s choice. The fundamentalist preacher has • ked the president to let him question Judge O’Connor about her views on feminism and ~rtion . ~Y such concessions on Reagan’s part would be ~ e height of irresponsibility,” said Spurgeon Dunnam III, editor of the Dallas-based Tezas Methodist-United Methodist Reporter, a national publication serving the 9.6 million-member United Methodist Church and churches of other denominations. “I’m bothered, personally, by the type of religious folks Mr. Reagan tends to liaten to,” Dunnam wrote in this week’s edition. “Mr. Falwell epitomw.es a very narrow, legalistic and not always Christian. from my understanding of the Scriptures, point of view.” Dr. Presnall Wood, editor of the Baptist Standard, the Dallas-based voice