A Rainbow of Anger Over Bachmann's 'Marriage Vow'

From porn to gay marriage to slave-era black families: this vow has it all

The lefty blogosphere is fuming with rage this afternoon after Michel Bachmann signed a pledge entitled "The Marriage Vow" promoted by a conservative Christian values group named The Family Leader. The pledge's primary purpose is to secure the candidate's opposition to gay marriage but the document weighs in on a whole range of culture warrior fronts, each eliciting a special form of outrage depending on the blogger's particular interest. Here's the landscape of anger:

It's rather racist, writes Tommy Christopher at Mediaite: "There’s a lot to hate in The Marriage Vow, but right at the top of page one is the paragraph that insists that black children born into slavery had a better shot at two-parent glory than those born under President Obama’s watch." Here's the passage:

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.

Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones adds, "Maybe they should get a bit of credit for acknowledging that slavery was 'disastrous' for black Americans. But that passage seems to suggest that maybe things actually were better for black Americans then. Yes, being kept as property, forced into marriages arranged by slave masters, and raped by those masters was great for black people."

It seems to ban porn, notes Salon's Justin Elliott. "The pledge, which is really worth reading in full, also includes a reference to protecting children from "all forms of pornography" that could arguably be read as an endorsement of a porn ban.

It's trying to encourage a baby boom, notes progressive blogger Michael Shatz: "Another zinger in the pledge is found near the bottom."

Recognition that robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to the U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security

"Never mind that our economy is in the tank and that many families are struggling to house, clothe, feed and provide health care for one child, let alone a virtual village of kids," he bristles.

It calls being gay a choice, fumes Andrew Belonsky at Towelroad: "The document... also contends that homosexuality is a choice, rather than a biological trait. I honestly thought, or at least hoped, candidates would be hesitant to back such an inflammatory declaration."

It's all over the place notes Gawker's Jim Newell: "And my favorite," he notes, pointing to a limited government passage:

Commitment to downsizing government and the enormous burden upon American families of the USA‟s $14.3 trillion public debt, its $77 trillion in unfunded liabilities, its $1.5 trillion federal deficit, and its $3.5 trillion federal budget.

"Again, this is in 'The Marriage Vow.' See what they did there?" he writes.