Covenant marriage called 'next step'
Law would make divorce much harder for those who sign up
By Dave Ranney, LJWorld.com from the Web, December 5, 2004
Next year's debate about how to define Kansas marriages won't be limited to banning homosexual matrimony.
Conservative legislators say they're ready to back a "covenant marriage" bill similar to the one enacted in 1997 in Louisiana.
"It's the next step," said Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler.
Covenant marriage "wouldn't be required," Huelskamp said. "But it would be there for people who want to send the message that
'Yes, I want this marriage to last forever.' It would set a higher standard for those who want to meet it."
Earlier this year, Huelskamp led efforts to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.
Though unsuccessful in the 2004 Legislature, he said he intended to file a similar bill before the 2005 session.
"We need to get that out of the way first," Huelskamp said. "We'll get to covenant marriage after that."
The gay marriage amendment is expected to pass.
Huelskamp's counterpart in the House, Rep. Kathe Decker, R-Clay Center, said she, too, would push covenant marriage.
'Too easy'
"It's too easy to get a divorce," Decker said. "Marriage is fast becoming a throwaway institution."
If passed, the bill probably would let Kansas couples demonstrate their commitment by agreeing to:
• Participate in premarital counseling.
• File an affidavit, stating their intent to stay married for life.
• Take "reasonable steps" to preserve their marriage, including marital counseling.
• Limiting reasons for divorce to adultery, abuse of spouse or child, abandonment for a year or conviction of a felony.
• A two-year separation before divorce takes effect.
Most Kansans, Decker said, would see nothing wrong with the state encouraging premarital counseling and letting couples voluntarily limit their access to divorce.
But Scott Feld, a former sociology professor at Louisiana State University, said covenant marriage hasn't proven as popular there as its supporters claim.
Louisiana experience
The bill sailed through the Louisiana Legislature "quickly and overwhelmingly," he said.
"But only about 2 percent of the affected population signed up for it the first year; it's been between 1 percent and 2 percent ever since."
Most couples, Feld said, don't "see the need for a separate covenant. They're not unhappy with regular marriage."
Also, he said, the Catholic Church steered its parishioners clear of covenant marriage because the new law created two types of marriage -- covenant and noncovenant -- and because it recognized the possibility for divorce.
"In the eyes of the Catholic Church, all marriages are equally sacred," said Feld, now a sociology professor at Purdue University.
"And the church had a real problem with priests having to talk to couples about what constituted grounds for divorce."
Responding to the church's concerns, Louisiana legislators dropped the notion that premarital counseling would include discussing divorce.
Arizona and Arkansas passed marriage-covenant laws in 1998 and 2001, respectively.
What it does
In Kansas, an effort in 1998 to enact covenant marriage failed amid warnings it would wreak havoc on the courts and add to the bitterness of divorce.
"Covenant marriage is a scary thing," said Charlie Harris, a Wichita divorce lawyer and chairman of the Kansas Judicial Council's advisory council on family law.
"Control freaks love it," he said. "The pressure is on to go that next step --
'Oh, honey, don't you love me enough to do this?' And then after they do and things don't work out, they can't divorce until fault is established."
"That's when it gets ugly," Harris said. "It's an ugliness that few people can imagine."
Currently, divorce proceedings in Kansas do not require establishing fault.
That, Huelskamp said, hurts Kansas families.
"It's too easy to get a divorce," he said. "The way the law is now, a husband or a wife can walk out on a marriage with no reason.
That hurts families, and it hurts the children in those families."
Other options
Instead of pushing for covenant marriage, said Linda Elrod, a family law professor at Washburn University, lawmakers' energy would be better spent on incentive-based programs such as those in Florida, where marriage license fees are significantly reduced for couples who complete a four-hour counseling course developed by Florida State University.
Oklahoma, Minnesota, Tennessee and Maryland have reduced license fees for couples who take part in premarital classes or counseling.
In Texas, $3 from each $36 marriage license is used to support premarital classes and research.
"We don't do anything like that in Kansas," Elrod said.
In Kansas, a marriage license costs $75.
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