Brody File Exclusive: GOP Presidential Candidates Will be Asked to Sign a Marriage Vow

The Brody File has learned that The Family Leader, an influential pro-family group in Iowa will ask each of the 2012 presidential candidates to sign a marriage pledge that professes everything from marital fidelity to embracing a federal marriage amendment.

The document, which has a total of 14 points is called, “The Marriage Vow - A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family.”

The Family Leader will hold a press conference on the west steps of the Iowa state capitol building on Thursday at 11 a.m. to provide more details.

The organization’s CEO Bob Vander Plaats, a major conservative evangelical leader in Iowa and was Mike Huckabee’s state chair in 2008, told The Brody File that any candidate who declines to sign the document would NOT be receiving the endorsement of The Family Leader.

Some of the 14 points within the document are as follows:

- Personal fidelity to his/her spouse
- Appointing faithful constitutionalists as judges
- Opposition to any redefinition of marriage
- Support for the legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
- Humane efforts to protect women and children, (sex trafficking, pornography, etc.)
- Rejection of anti-women Sharia Islam
- Commitment to downsizing government because of the burden to the American family

The document will also cite statistics in an attempt to lay out the case as to why traditional marriage is threatened in America.

Vander Plaats tells me that this marriage pledge is vitally necessary because the sanctity of marriage is in crisis and leadership is desperately needed.

“We realize we fall short of God's standards," he said. "It’s not about beating people up for past mistakes. Rather, it is a recognition of a severe crisis.There has got to be a higher standard.”