BREAKING: Bachmann pledges to ban pornography | Tonight, Michele Bachmann became the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge created by THE FAMiLY LEADER, an influential social-conservative group in Iowa. By signing the pledge Bachmann “vows” to “uphold the institution of marriage as only between one man and one woman” by committing herself to 14 specifics steps. The ninth step calls for the banning of “all forms” of pornography. The pledge also states that homosexuality is both a choice and a health risk. You can read all the details of the pledge here.
ky on Jul 7, 2011 at 2:54 pm
This morning, Iowa’s FAMiLY Leader unveiled “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY,” a 14 bullet pledge presidential candidates will have to sign to secure any “future endorsement” from the organization and its influential leader, Bob Vander Plaats. Throughout the early primary process, Vander Plaats — a three-time unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate who helped propel Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) to victory in the state in 2008 and ran a successful campaign to recall three justices who overturned Iowa’s anti same-sex marriage law — has sought to position himself as a gatekeeper to the conservative voters who participate in the Iowa caucuses. Leader has hosted a presidential forum with almost all of the GOP’s 2012 contenders and Plaats has traveled to Washington, DC to present himself as a national Tea Party leader.
Today’s pledge seeks to solidify the organization’s reputation as the state’s conservative moral authority, and it reiterates many of the group’s extreme social views and anti-gay rhetoric. If any candidate signs on to Leader’s vows, they will be agreeing to the following radical constructs:
– HOMOSEXUALITY IS A CHOICE: The preface to the pledge reads, “Social protections…have been evaporating as we have collectively ‘debased the currency’ of marriage…in complete absence of empirical proof, that non-heterosexual inclination are genetically determined, irresistible and akin to innate traits like race, gender and eye color; as well as anti-scientific bias which holds, against all empirical evidence, that homosexual behavior in particular, and sexual promiscuity in general, optimizes individual or public health.” Footnote 8 reiterates this notion.
– HOMOSEXUALITY IS LIKE POLYGAMY, ADULTERY, POLYANDRY: Vow 4 requires the candidate to pledge “Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage…through statutory, bureaucratic, or court-imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex.”
– HOMOSEXUALITY IS A PUBLIC HEALTH RISK: Footnote 4 claims that homosexuality causes shorter life expectancy and a higher probability of a long list of sexually transmitted diseases. The Leader has previously compared same-sex marriage to second-hand smoking.
– SEX IS BETTER AFTER MARRIAGE: Vow 5 requires the candidate to support the notion that “married people enjoy better health, better sex.”
– PORNOGRAPHY SHOULD BE BANNED: Vow 9 stipulates that the candidate must “support human protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” and protect them from “seduction into promiscuity and all forms of pornography…and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.”
– REJECT SHARIA ISLAM: Vow 11 requires the candidate to reject Sharia law.
