wfn.org | Government and marriage: A union made in heaven?

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 29, 2003  News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.	10-71B{301}

NOTE: This report may be used as a sidebar to UMNS story #300.

A UMNS Report
By Kathy Gilbert*

When a couple says "I do," how much of a hand should government have in their
union?

Three states - Louisiana, Arizona and Arkansas - offer couples an alternative
to the traditional marriage license. If couples choose the "covenant
marriage," they are required to have premarital counseling, promise to take
steps to protect their marriage and are restricted in accessibility to
divorce.

Government has a vested interest in supporting healthy marriages, said Wade
F. Horn, assistant secretary for Children and Families in the Department of
Health and Human Services, speaking at a recent conference on marriage at
United Methodist-related Emory University in Atlanta.

The Bush administration has proposed spending $100 million with a $100
million matching grant from states for local community programs that support
healthy marriages.

"As a pastor, I certainly support people getting married," Eliezer
Valentin-Castanon, an executive with the churchwide Board of Church and
Society, told United Methodist News Service last summer. "But there is no
evidence to support the idea that if you are married it will save you from
poverty." He added that the government could greatly help single parents by
raising the minimum wage and providing more funds for child care.  

The Bush administration's "healthy marriage initiative" is about helping
couples that choose to marry develop the skills and knowledge necessary to
sustain their marriages, Horn said. "It is not about forcing people to get
married, implementing policies that would trap someone in an abusive marriage
or withdrawing support from single-parent households," he added. 

All things being equal, children who come from "two-parent, healthy marriage
households" do better than children who don't, Horn said, so the government
shouldn't be neutral about marriage. "We're not neutral about home ownership.
Because communities with a higher proportion of homeowners are more stable
and have less social pathologies, the government provides incentives for
homeownership." 

Tangible ways the administration plans to encourage and sustain "healthy
marriages" include premarital education (in which couples are taught
conflict-negotiation skills), marriage enrichment and intervention for
troubled marriages. 

Louisiana passed the nation's first "covenant marriage" law in 1997. A
covenant marriage provides an alternative to the traditional marriage
contract for couples who oppose no-fault divorce or who want to demonstrate a
stronger commitment to marriage. Couples selecting a covenant marriage must
get premarital counseling. They may divorce only after a separation of two
years, conviction of a felony, proof of adultery or domestic abuse, or
abandonment by one spouse for a year. 

Arizona's covenant marriage law was enacted in 1998 and Arkansas' in 2001. At
least 15 states considered, but did not pass, covenant marriage laws in 1999.
Louisiana and Arizona amended their covenant marriage laws in 1999. Covenant
marriage bills were introduced in at least 13 states in both 2000 and 2001. 

"Different types of couples choose covenant marriages," said Katherine Shaw
Spaht, the Jules F. and Frances L. Landry professor of law at Louisiana State
University Center. Spaht was also a speaker at the Emory conference.

"Those who choose covenant marriages are more religious, more conservative,
more educated, and more traditional in their thoughts about gender," she
said. "Women were the leaders in wanting covenant marriages," she added.

States do not require premarital counseling for adults who plan to marry, but
some states are beginning to look at ways to encourage couples to take
counseling or marriage education courses. 

Florida's 1998 Marriage Preparation and Preservation Act offers a reduced
marriage license fee for couples that complete counseling or marriage
education courses. The act also requires public high schools to teach
marriage and relationship skills. 

In 1999, Oklahoma enacted legislation to reduce marriage license fees for
couples that get premarital counseling, and Texas directs $3 from each
marriage license toward premarital research and education efforts. 

Maryland law allows counties to reduce marriage license fees for couples that
have completed counseling. Arizona, California and Utah provide for
premarital counseling for minors under certain circumstances. 

For more information, see
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/marriage.htm#covmar.
# # #
*Gilbert is a news writer with United Methodist News Service.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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