Tag: the family leader

The weekend before thanksgiving, Colorado Springs-based evangelical group Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage will host a Republican presidential candidate forum in Des Moines centered on social issues. Focus on the Family staffer Tom Minnery said the hosts of the event don't plan to "get into theology as such" because there wouldn't be enough time for the candidates to "solve theological questions." Primary campaign frontrunner Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, has yet to commit to the event.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has taken a look at a 2012 social pledge introduced by an Iowa religious conservative organization and has decided not to sign.

The Family Leader, an Iowa religious right group that has been active in GOP caucuses of that state, backtracked on a pledge the group released last week that asked candidates to vow to oppose pornography and same-sex marriage. The pledge contained a controversial statement about slavery, and over the weekend, the Family Leader removed that reference. Rep. Michele Bachmann — the first signer of the pledge — said that she wasn’t signing off on the preamble that contained the slavery reference, only the vows themselves.

Michele Bachmann became the first presidential candidate to sign a pledge by The Family Leader, an Iowa-based religious right group. The 14-point pledge asks candidates to ban same-sex marriage, protect women and children from pornography and reject Islamic law. Signers also must promise to affirm that same-sex marriage is akin to polygamy and that having many children is good for America. The vow also insinuates that homosexuality is a choice, and that being gay or lesbian is a public health risk.

Once you get on a Colbert roll, it's hard to get off, so here we go again: Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert singled out conservative organization The Family Leader and its president, Bob Vander Plaats, for their renewed interest in comparing the public health risks of homosexuality to second-hand smoke.