(image source: LenAngel Christian Outreach Ministry)

Republic candidate Michele Bachmann said “I DO” to a conservative pledge in Iowa today called, “The Marriage Vow,” highlighting 14 points that include opposition to same-sex marriage and women and children’s protection from pornography. CBS News highlighted why this pledge may pack a punch, stating...

"The support of groups like Family Leader, which created the pledge, could be significant in the state, where 60 percent of the Republican electorate in 2008 identified as "born-again Christian."

The article later pointed out...

“The pledge could prove embarrassing other candidates, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been married three times and admitted to an extramarital affair.”


Bachmann was the first to sign The Family Leader’s pledge, along with former Sen. Rick Satorum. It seems to synthesize all that Bachmann stands as she moves forward in her campaign.


REPORTER: “The marriage vow - it’s a promise to stand for things like the Defense of Marriage Act, something candidate Michele Bachmann has not shied away from.”

BACHMANN: “I believe that this is such a fundamental issue to our nation, the strengthening of the family and the importance of marriage between a man and a woman, that I will stand for that."


But what Bachmann HAS shied away from is an issue the pledge firmly describes: homosexuality as a choice, rather than a genetic disposition. Bachmann danced around the question in CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

ANCHOR:“Do you think homosexuality is a choice?"

BACHMANN: "You know, um, I firmly believe that people need to make their own decisions about that, but I am running for the presidency of the United States, I’m not running to be anyone’s judge and that’s, that’s where I’m coming from in this race.”

Perhaps the most controversial piece of the Marriage Vow has stirred up protest across the country. Minnesota's KMSP interviews an anti-Bachmann blogger who voiced his opposition.

Reporter:“Among other bizarre items, it notes that a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised in a two-parent household that a child born under President Obama...”

Blogger: “It’s offensive and it’s just flat out wrong. She sees the Family Leader as important to her getting that win in Iowa and she’ll let nothing stop her to get that.”

According to Family Leader’s President Bob Vander Plaats, the only misstep involving the pledge would be for candidates to refuse signing it.

“Why would you not sign the pledge? Do you have an issue with personal fidelity to your own spouse? Or respecting the marital bounds of another? Or appointing only constitutional judges? Or standing up for women and children?"

But according to MSNBC, the issue many people would have with the pledge, is its apparent irony.

“To much of the country, though, the idea of defending what the pledge calls our 'exceptional and free society' by limiting citizens' freedoms might not make quite as much sense.”

Vander Plaats intends to send The Marriage Vow to presidential candidates, including President Obama by July 15th. His hope is to have signed documents returned by August 1st to announce at the Iowa State Fair and Straw Poll.