Pawlenty won’t sign controversial Iowa marriage pledge

Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty announced on Wednesday that he would not sign a controversial marriage pledge by Iowa’s The Family Leader. Pawlenty said, “I prefer to choose my own words,” in response to the pledge which has come under fire for references to slavery, its opposition to same-sex marriage, a ban on pornography and an insinuation that being gay or lesbian is a choice. Fellow presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have signed on while Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have criticized the pledge.

“I fully support traditional marriage,” Pawlenty said in a statement. “Unequivocally. The traditional family faces enormous challenges in America, and if elected I would vigorously oppose any effort to redefine marriage as anything other than between one man and one woman.”

He added, “I respectfully decline to sign the pledge.”

The Pawlenty campaign also release a video professing his faith and that “the founders of this country made it very clear that we were founded under God.”