The Family Leader's "Marriage Vow" pledge asks a lot of the presidential candidates who sign it. You better not like gay people, for instance! Porn is right out, too. But seriously, this is no-brainer stuff when you're running for the GOP nomination in 2012.
Here's one part, though, of the pledge's preamble, that struck me as a little odd:
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.
Yeah, you know there weren't as many American jobs going overseas in 1860. And the price of gas was something just about everyone could live with, too. Nevertheless, while I understand the point the Family Leader wants to make about marriage, it seems to be many, many bridges too far to include this passage. As Adam Serwer succinctly put it: "A good rule of thumb for empathizing with black Americans is avoiding suggestions that we were better off as property."
I was interested in seeing who possibly would beg to differ with Serwer's premise. But while Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum (predictably) were quick to pledge their fealty to "The Marriage Vow," The Family Leader has had a quickie divorce from the 'slavery passage.' Didn't want to stay together for the children, The Family Leader? Oh well, it may have disappeared from the pledge, but the internet never forgets.
[Hat Tip: @pinkgranite]
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