Covenant marriage
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In some parts of the United States, a covenant marriage is a legally distinct kind of marriage, in which the marrying couple agree to obtain pre-marital counseling and accept more limited grounds for divorce. The movement to create covenant marriage as a legal category, largely driven by evangelical Christians, is a cultural and political response to the ready availability of no-fault divorce and the United States' high divorce rate.
It is more difficult for couples who have a legal covenant marriage to obtain a divorce. Cause for divorce is typically limited to abuse, a felony with jail time, or adultery; however, these restrictions do not apply if one or both spouses file for divorce in a state that does not recognize covenant marriages. To date, the number of couples choosing covenant marriage in the states where it is an option has ranged between 1 and 3 percent of all marriages.
While pre-nuptial agreements governing the resolutions of issues in a divorce, and to a lesser extent, calling for alternative dispute resolution in a divorce, have sometimes been upheld, these agreements have generally not been held to permit alteration of the grounds upon which the parties may obtain a divorce. Therefore, covenant marriage cannot generally be secured without statutory assistance.
In 1997, Louisiana became the first state to create covenant marriage as a legal category; since then Arkansas and Arizona have followed suit. People who are already married in these states may change their marriage to a covenant marriage. Legislation has been introduced to create legal covenant marriage in a number of other states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia; these efforts have not to date been successful.
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[edit] References
- Gary D. Chapman, Covenant Marriage: Building Communication & Intimacy, Broadman & Holman Publishers (September, 2003), ISBN 0-8054-2576-4.
- Samuel Pyeatt Menefee, "The Sealed Knot: A Preliminary Bibliography of Covenant Marriage," Regent University Law Review, vol. 12, no. 1 (1999): pp. 145-282.
