Covenant marriages: Marriage with a difference:
Harder to get into, harder to get out of.
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Quotation:
"I really, really do." Title of an article on Covenant Marriages by
Roy Maynard. 1
"This gives an extra comfort level to a generation of children
who grew up under no-fault divorce laws. These kids know what divorce
can do to a family. They've lived it." State representative. Tony
Perkins (R-LA). 1
A covenant marriage "may turn out to be a horror story...if you
have an abusive situation or molestation that might occur. It's a step
back in time in terms of making it difficult for someone-especially
women-to get out of a bad situation." Joe Cook, head of the ACLU in
Louisiana. 1
Covenant marriage has "...made it more final; more sure. It's a
little more exciting. We know this is really for life. We're not
thinking, in the back of our minds, what if this doesn't work out? So in
a lot of ways, it's even more romantic." Pam LeBlanc, one of the
first covenant marriage brides in Louisiana, 1997. 1
Warning:
This series of essays examines covenant marriages from all points of view --
both positive and negative. Some visitors to this web site may not be
comfortable with this approach, because it exposes them to viewpoints that are
opposed to their own.
Overview:
Covenant marriage (CM) is an alternative form of marriage which opposite-sex
couples can choose in place of regular marriage. It is more difficult to
get into and more difficult to escape from via divorce.
CM legislation is basically a return to the marriage law prior to the
introduction of no-fault divorce. A divorce normally requires one spouse to
prove that the other spouse is guilty of adultery or abuse. Marriage breakdown,
as evidenced by a period of marital separation, is an alternative ground for
divorce. But the interval required can be quite long. An additional feature of
CM is the requirement for premarital counseling, and perhaps pre-separation
counseling.
Covenant marriages are not expected to have much of an effect on the
national divorce rate:
Only a very small percentage of couples are choosing them in states
where they are available.
By the end of 2001, "Fewer than 3 percent of couples who marry in
Louisiana and Arizona take on the extra restrictions of marriage by
covenant. " 2 The vast majority choose to select "ordinary" marriage with its access to easy,
no-fault divorce.
The covenant marriage rates appear to be in rapid decline. For the
interval 2003-JAN-01 to MAY-20, only four new covenant marriage licenses
were issued in Arkansas out of a total of 11,037 licenses. 3
Covenant marriages are currently only available in three states of the U.S.:
Arizona, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
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