People: Sep. 16, 1985

“If I was picking a panel of people who know most about the issue, even if it was 50 people on each side, I’m not sure I’d pick either man,” admitted ABC’s Ted Koppel. Even so, the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Jerry Falwell starred on Nightline last week, locking horns over the subject of U.S. policy in South Africa. Falwell, founder of Moral Majority, argued that withdrawing U.S. investments from South Africa in an effort to coerce the country into abandoning apartheid would do more harm than good. Said he: “We can cut out the cancer without killing the patient.” Jackson, head of Operation Push, was less sanguine. “With increased investment in apartheid,” he maintained, “the rope around the necks of the people appears to be getting tighter as opposed to looser.” The on-camera conversation was heated, but once the lights were off, piety and politics took over. Falwell said amen to most of Jackson’s statements, and Jackson gave his opponent a big hand–on the top of his head in a gesture of blessing.