Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) - Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), fresh from his dead-heat second-place finish in Iowa Tuesday, took his campaign to New Hampshire Wednesday, but not before taking an oblique swipe Tuesday night at President Barack Obama’s bully pulpit support for the homosexual activist agenda.

In an election night speech to Iowa supporters, Santorum told the crowd that he believes “the state of our culture under this administration continues to decline with the values that are unlike the values that built this country.”

It remains to be seen how the message will play in New England, but in Iowa, Santorum had expressed clear and consistent opposition to same-sex marriage and support for state and national constitutional amendments defining marriage to be the union of one man and one woman.

At a Thanksgiving-time candidate event sponsored by the Iowa Family Forum, Santorum told an audience of mostly religious conservatives that the imposition of same-sex marriage upon the U.S. could lead to the fall of the nation.

“We have to fight the battles in the states -- we cannot defer. We can't say, ‘The 10th Amendment, they can do what they want.’ This is too important for that. There's a basic and central value. The family is the bedrock of our society. Unless we protect it with the institution of marriage, our country will fall,” Santorum said.

Santorum had also signed a marriage protection pledge sponsored by The Family Leader, a consortium of Iowa pro-family socially conservative and Christian groups led by Bob VanderPlaats – the Sioux City, Iowa, businessman who led the successful 2010 campaign to recall three Iowa Supreme Court justices responsible for making same-sex marriage legal in Iowa.

The 14-point pledge asked candidates to vow, if elected, to: “honor and to cherish, to defend and to uphold, the Institution of Marriage as only between one man and one woman.”

Candidates also vowed (among other things):

-- “Personal fidelity to my spouse”

-- “Respect for the marital bonds of others.”

-- “Official fidelity to the U.S. Constitution, supporting the elevation of none but faithful constitutionalists as judges or justices.”

-- “Vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage – faithful monogamy between one man and one woman – through statutory-, bureaucratic-, or court-imposed recognition of intimate unions which are bigamous, polygamous, polyandrous, same-sex, etc.”

-- “Recognition of the overwhelming statistical evidence that married people enjoy better health, better sex, longer lives, greater financial stability, and that children raised by a mother and a father together experience better learning, less addiction, less legal trouble, and less extramarital pregnancy.”

-- “Support for prompt reform of uneconomic, anti-marriage aspects of welfare policy, tax policy, and marital/divorce law, and extended ‘second chance’ or ‘cooling-off’ periods for those seeking a ‘quickie divorce.’”

-- “Earnest, bona fide legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at the federal and state levels.”

Santorum was not alone in signing the pledge. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who also supports a federal marriage amendment, has decided to continue his campaign, despite his dismal fifth place (10.3 percent) showing in Iowa.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who signed the pledge and never failed to raise the issue of marriage protection while stumping in Iowa, suspended her campaign Wednesday after her sixth place showing drew only 5 percent of the vote.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who finished fourth in Iowa with 13.3 percent, refused to sign the pledge, but did issue a written statement pledging to "uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others."

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who finished third in Iowa, does not support a constitutional amendment to protect marriage.

Iowa winner Mitt Romney and Utah Gov. John Huntsman chose not to sign the pledge.