# Iowa Family Policy Center's "Marriage Vow" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 8, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340 "2011-07-08T18:06:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/1 "2011-07-08T18:06:18Z")
So Michele Bachmann [signed the “Marriage Vow”](http://www.salon.com/news/2012_elections/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/07/08/bachmann_conservative_pledge). Have you read this thing? [It’s nuts!](http://www.thefamilyleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/themarriagevow.final_.7.7.111.pdf) I couldn’t get past the first sentence without my jaw dropping: > [@](#): > > Faithful monogamy is at the very heart of a designed and purposeful order – as conveyed by Jewish and Christian Scripture, by Classical Philosophers, by Natural Law, and by the American Founders – upon which our concepts of Creator-endowed human rights, racial justice and gender equality all depend. Where did the founding fathers discuss what marriage should be? Socrates? Plato? Did I miss that in school? The second sentence: > [@](#): > > Enduring marital fidelity between one man and one woman protects innocent children, vulnerable women, the rights of fathers, the stability of families, and the liberties of all American citizens under our republican form of government. Forcing everyone into Christian one man/one woman marriages protects the liberties of all American citizens. Hmm, really?! Don’t forget to read all the endnotes: > [@](#): > > 19 We do not oppose peaceful Muslims, only the intolerant system of Sharia Islam Nice of them not to oppose all Muslims, since Sharia Islam is a made up thing. But wait: > [@](#): > > That the longstanding religious liberties of American parents, children, religious and civic leaders who adhere to Jewish and Christian tradition, teaching and sacred texts regarding faithful heterosexual monogamy are not jeopardized by recent or pending redefinitions of legal marriage to include same-sex unions, polygamy and other kinds of intimate relations So all Americans have the right to religious freedom as long as they’re Christian or Jewish? And to push the whole thing over into the surreal, the final endnote: > [@](#): > > 22 Amendment 1: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/2 "2011-07-08T18:10:30Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > **Iowa Family Policy Center’s “Marriage Vow”** _\_ You know, I remember when the term “family” felt warm-and-fuzzy. These days it feels about as warm-and-fuzzy as “rule by the iron fist”. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/3 "2011-07-08T18:28:37Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > Nice of them not to oppose all Muslims, since Sharia Islam is a made up thing. Made up? Well then, who are all the Koran Bibles being printed for? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/4 "2011-07-08T18:36:06Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > _\_ You know, I remember when the term “family” felt warm-and-fuzzy. Well, unless you’re a member of the Manson Family. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/5 "2011-07-08T18:41:27Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > Nice of them not to oppose all Muslims, since Sharia Islam is a made up thing. It’s a redundant phrase, I suppose, kind of like “Jewish Kosher,” might be, but I’m not sure I agree it’s completely made up. _Sharia_ is a legitimate Arabic word meaning “path” and it is legitimately used to refer to Islamic religious law, interpreted through the _fiqh_ jurisprudential process. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/6 "2011-07-08T18:49:21Z")
I liked this part: > [@](#): > > Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born in to 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, that hasn’t been a trend for decades - President Obama did it ALL HIMSELF! Why is it that things that this that purport to be against things that oppress women seem so oppressive to women themselves to me? This > [@](#): > > Rejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control. seems totally hypocritical to me. “We’re against oppressing women and totalitarian control, and to show you how against it we are, we are going to totally control the institute of marriage!” I think we all know how good traditional marriage used to be at not oppressing women. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/7 "2011-07-08T18:57:21Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > _\_ You know, I remember when the term “family” felt warm-and-fuzzy. These days it feels about as warm-and-fuzzy as “rule by the iron fist”. I can’t help but see something sinister in the lower case i in their name: The FAMiLY LEADER. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/8 "2011-07-08T18:57:50Z")
I need a clarification. This point: > [@Family Leader](#): > > 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. Does it mean they’re vowing to get rid of all forms of pornography? Or just women coerced into it? Because here’s an issue that I think Joe Sixpack might disagree with Bachmann on. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/9 "2011-07-08T19:13:37Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > I can’t help but see something sinister in the lower case i in their name: The FAMiLY LEADER. That’s because families work as teams, with no one member (except the dad) having errant thoughts. THERE IS NO “I” IN FAMiLY! ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/10 "2011-07-08T19:15:13Z")
I’m still waiting for the hammer to fall on Mr. Bachmann. That guy’s just begging to get caught in a men’s room shuffling his feet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/11 "2011-07-08T19:15:29Z")
Do I steal the innocence of a kid when I tell her there is no Santa Claus? ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/12 "2011-07-08T19:26:46Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > Do I steal the innocence of a kid when I tell her there is no Santa Claus? No, because Santa Claus a product of the left’s attempt to take “Christ” out of “Christmas” (or to commercialize Christmas, but I’m not completely clear on why a Socialist would want to do that). But any time you look at porn some random kid has their innocence stolen. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/13 "2011-07-08T19:35:30Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I’m still waiting for the hammer to fall on Mr. Bachmann. That guy’s just begging to get caught in a men’s room shuffling his feet. Oh, no kidding. Some brave gay doper has to get on the inside of her campaign and bag himself a bear. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/14 "2011-07-08T20:07:35Z")
From the OP: > [@](#): > > Quote: > Faithful monogamy is at the very heart of a designed and purposeful order – as conveyed by Jewish and Christian Scripture, by Classical Philosophers, by Natural Law, and by the American Founders – upon which our concepts of Creator-endowed human rights, racial justice and gender equality all depend. > Where did the founding fathers discuss what marriage should be? Socrates? Plato? Did I miss that in school? Yeah, the original Constitution was just a bastion of gender equality, except for that little votes for women problem. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/15 "2011-07-08T20:12:22Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Oh, no kidding. Some brave gay doper has to get on the inside of her campaign and bag himself a bear. You’re asking someone to touch something that went into that? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/16 "2011-07-08T20:16:11Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > No, because Santa Claus a product of the left’s attempt to take “Christ” out of “Christmas” (or to commercialize Christmas, but I’m not completely clear on why a Socialist would want to do that). But any time you look at porn some random kid has their innocence stolen. Isn’t that from a movie? “Look, Daddy. Bachmann says every time you look at porn a child loses their innocence.” ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/17 "2011-07-08T20:18:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born in to 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. How would they even know this to be true? Are there any reasonably accurate records from the years of slavery to give a fairly reasonable picture of how many children were raised in two parent households? Also iirc from history class, breaking up families and selling off children was a fairly common practice under slavery. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/18 "2011-07-08T20:25:56Z")
I don’t think they care if it’s true. (I know, I know, that’s kinda obvious.) ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/19 "2011-07-08T20:30:50Z")
I liked this bit: > [@](#): > > 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. I’m gonna refer to all children as innocent fruit from now on. It’s important to differentiate yourself as a candidate from the pro-infanticide camp. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340/20 "2011-07-08T20:39:09Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > _\_ You know, I remember when the term “family” felt warm-and-fuzzy. These days it feels about as warm-and-fuzzy as “rule by the iron fist”. That’s because you have a fucked view of the world. It’s sad that you have no family member that makes you feel warm and fuzzy when you think of the word “family”. Then again it would explain why you’re fucked up in the head. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iowa-family-policy-centers-marriage-vow/588340.md?page=2)