Laws permitting covenant marriage have been passed in at least 20 states, and have been proposed

Question

for several other states.

Covenant marriage laws are intended to prevent the decline of the
traditional nuclear monogamous family unit through strengthening family values, encouraging
thoughtful pre-marital engagement, and increasing commitment to the marital union, spouses, and
children. Critics contend that although the concept of the covenant marriage is nice, it is not very
adaptable to the economic realities of our modern society. What are the key arguments for and
against each position?
What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Sanchez, et.al. conducted an exploratory study of three focus groups of persons to determine basic
beliefs about covenant marriage. The groups included (1) advocates of covenant marriage, (2)
critics who often held strong modernist and feminist beliefs, and (3) a group of low income public
housing residents. The groups differed considerably in their perception and beliefs about covenant
marriage, and its effectiveness in modern American society.
The covenant marriage movement of the late 1990s grew out of wide-spread concern that multiple
forces and no-fault divorce laws in particular have threatened the institution of marriage through
reducing personal commitment to marriage and the family, making divorce too easy to acquire,
and thereby weakening core family values and family unity in the American society. Advocates
propose to institutionalize laws to require pre-marital counseling to couples seeking marriage to
encourage more thoughtful and sincere commitment to the marital union, and to make it more
difficult to acquire a divorce or abandon the family unit. They tend to believe that the decline in
fundamental family values can be reversed in part, through legislating family counseling and
eliminating no-fault divorce in the American society. They believe that covenant marriage
legislation can enhance family commitment, trust, personal integrity and fidelity in marriage, and
create a more mature and moral approach to family units. People who support covenant marriage
tend to be politically conservative and believe in the importance of fundamental core values to
prevent moral decline in the American society.
Critics of covenant marriage tend to believe that government cannot and should not legislate
morality, and are skeptical that covenant marriage legislation will actually foster stronger
commitment in marriage and family, and benefit children. They tend to believe that covenant
marriage supports traditional male patriarchy in society, and sets unreasonable rigid hierarchical
and gender-stereotypical expectations for women and men. In this fashion covenant marriage
delimits the woman's role and equality in the marital relationship, and disempowers wives in the
family unit.
Lower income persons supported the ideals of covenant marriage, but felt that it might not be
successful when families face the economic difficulties of surviving on limited income. They tend
to hold pragmatic rather than idealistic conceptions of marriage and family, and are often unable to
do the things important to making a covenant marriage work.