GOP Presidential campaign hopeful Tim Pawlenty joined Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman in their refusal to sign the Family Leader’s anti-gay, anti-Islam, and seemingly pro-slavery “Marriage Vow.” Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he was refusing to sign the pledge, calling it “undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.” The pledge has already been signed by Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Rick Santorum. This obviously calculated move by Pawlenty and Romney will help them appear more moderate, when compared to Bachmann and Santorum.
The Family Leader’s “Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY” includes opposition to same-sex marriage at every level, asking for a “steadfast embrace of a federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which protects the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman in all of the United States”, a promise to support only judges who are “faithful constitutionalists” and protecting women and children from pornography. Signers agree to support making divorce more difficult and to call for “humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy — our next generation of American children — from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.”
Perhaps the most ridiculously offensive part of the pledge is the section that suggests that slavery was good for black families. The document states:
“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.”
The implication that things were better for African American families during slavery is so horrifyingly racist and awful; it is yet another reveal of the truly harmful opinions and beliefs that these people (and politicians) share. The Family Leader was quick to remove this part of the pledge, after it started making headlines. The rest, however, remains intact.