Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the darkest of dark-horse candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, blasted Bob Vander Plaats and the Family Leader — a social conservative group based in Iowa — over the organization’s controversial Marriage Vow signed by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.
Denouncing the document as offensive, Johnson said the pledge was nothing short of a promise to discriminate against everyone who makes a personal choice that doesn’t fit into the group’s narrow definition of virtue.
“While the Family Leader pledge covers just about every other so-called virtue they can think of, the one that is conspicuously missing is tolerance,” said Johnson in a statement. “In one concise document, they manage to condemn gays, single parents, single individuals, divorcees, Muslims, gays in the military, unmarried couples, women who choose to have abortions and everyone else who doesn’t fit in a Norman Rockwell painting.”
Johnson said that the GOP cannot afford to nominate a presidential candidate who condones such intolerance and bigotry. “If we nominate such a candidate, we will never capture the White House in 2012,” he said.
Like Johnson, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney refused to the sign the pledge, saying that it contained references and provisions that were undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.
“The Marriage Vow- A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family” originally contained an excerpt stating that African-American children had better family structures during slavery than they do now, but that language was removed following a firestorm of criticism.
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