Family Leader nixes 'marriage oath' for 2016 candidates

The Family Leader, a Christian conservative advocacy group, is not planning to ask Republican presidential candidates to sign a far-reaching, pro-marriage oath as they campaign in the run-up to the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

The group's 14-point pledge generated both praise and controversy prior to the 2012 caucuses. It required candidates to swear personal fidelity to their spouse, endorse traditional marriage between one man and one woman, reject forms of Islamic law, oppose abortion, and support "robust childbearing and reproduction" as beneficial to the United States.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican Party's eventual nominee, refused to sign the 2012 pledge, citing references and provisions in the document that a spokeswoman described at the time as "undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign." However, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who won the 2012 Iowa Republican caucuses, signed the oath, along with former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Bob Vander Plaats, chief executive officer of The Family Leader, told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday that his organization has no plans at this time to ask candidates to sign the pledge as they campaign in the 2016 race, although he isn't totally closing the door on that possibility.

"One of the reasons why we are not doing it this time is that we saw it as more of a distraction" than as a benefit, Vander Plaats said. "We thought that there were other ways to do this. You know, our opponents want to pick apart things that we do. We want to make sure that the candidates are full-spectrum, pro-family conservatives."

As an alternative, The Family Leader is sponsoring a series of meetings with presidential candidates, Vander Plaats said. Included are four regional leadership forums, a family leadership summit in Ames in July, and a presidential forum in Des Moines in November.

"So we have six very formal opportunities to get the questions answered that we want answered," Vander Plaats said.

Two regional forums have been held so far, including a meeting in Mount Pleasant that drew more than 600 people, while another in Cedar Falls attracted about 200.

State Sen. Dennis Guth, R-Klemme, a strong supporter of traditional marriage, said Tuesday he didn't view The Family Leader's plans as a retreat on the issue of same-sex marriage. He said he has no doubt that social conservatives who will attend the organization's upcoming meetings will ask questions about issues similar to those in the marriage pledge.

"They are just reconsidering what they are doing and they are trying to do it in an effective way," Guth said.

Donna Red Wing, executive director of One Iowa, the state's largest gay rights organization, had a different view.

"I think the world is changing, and I think folks like Bob Vander Plaats and The Family Leader, while they are not abandoning their very deep convictions around family and marriage, they have made a decision not to make it a litmus test for candidates they support. ... I don't say this very often, but I have to applaud Bob Vander Plaats and The Family Leader for this small, but significant step," Red Wing said.

Connie Ryan Terrell, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, said the debate on marriage equality in the United States is all but decided, both politically and in law. "Religious beliefs should remain separate from the conversation on civil law and the constitution, which a president swears to uphold," she said.

The Family Leader did not endorse a presidential candidate in 2012, although Vander Plaats personally endorsed Santorum after having served as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's Iowa presidential campaign chairman in 2008. He said Tuesday he anticipates making a personal endorsement again prior to the 2016 Iowa caucuses, but it will be up to the organization's board of directors whether The Family Leader endorses a candidate during the current election cycle.

Officials with The Family Leader said they were flooded with positive phone calls and online comments after unveiling the 2012 marriage pledge. But critics strongly opposed a section which said children of slaves were more likely to live in a two-parent household than black children today. Vander Plaats said later that critics were distorting the facts and that his organization never claimed that slavery was better for families. The controversial section was eventually dropped from the document.