...but the intro music is "The Final Countdown!"

Land and Wallis stand behind transparent lecterns, grip them authoritatively, emphasizing their stout builds. I can't recap the entire debate in one post, so I'll just share what caught my interest. [Full disclosure: I used to work for Sojourners, of which Wallis is editor in chief.]

Wallis begins by emphasizing common ground, says "we must make sure our faith trumps our politics." Affirmation of sacredness of human life draws applause. His call for legislation reducing abortion elicits amens, and there's brief applause when he says he's troubled by abortion rates.

Wallis' approach to poverty - "3 legged stool " of government, church and private sector. Not a hint of applause. A little clapping for fatherhood initiatives, none for education, health care, wealth building. Living wages - not a peep from the audience. I infer from their response that they believe marriage will magically undo poverty.

Wallis' line connecting poverty and race, and call for repentance of racial sins, generates light but steady applause. I am genuinely surprised.

Land:

Cites CBS poll saying evangelical voters prioritize health care over abortion. Asks if audience agrees.
"NO!"
Were you included in the poll?
"NO!"
[The sample was 1,282 people across the country, so there's no reason to expect anyone in the room would've been surveyed. This is how opinion research works.]

Says "the transcendent moral issue of our time is sanctity of life given from conception to natural death." Touts need for law: "If we didn't have law against slavery, we would still have it. If we didn't have a law against segregation, we would still have it." Unless we outlaw abortion, "we will still have it."

[Note: We still have segregation, and it didn't take a law to solve slavery, it took a war, a cluster of constitutional amendments, and decades of transition.]

Land on foreign policy:

"I do not believe America is God's chosen nation, or god's chosen people, but I do know that we are most blessed nation in human history."

Later..

"I do not believe America has a special claim on God, but that God has a special claim on us."

A bit of tension there, no?

Just wow: "The only reason there is freedom anywhere in the world today is because of the military might of the United States of America and the willingness of its people to fight for other people's freedom."

Wallis argues for environmental responsibility, warns of climate change. There is a boo in the back of the room. Says we should be hardest to convince, not easiest, and that the war was mistake. Faint gasps whisper through the crowd.

Wallis' strongest applause came when he said "we cannot pit the unborn against the 30,000 children who die in poverty every day."

Land closed with a rift about the virtues of supply side economics.