The following article details an option when seeking covenant marriage of seeking either a clergy or a social worker. However the mere using of a social worker to prepare people for this new kind of marriage implies that a social worker can help advice people whether it’s an appropriate step. The only problem is that is a lot of psychological evidence that we are not meant to be monogamous. Some apparently some were designed not to be that way….
I would also argue that qsych has become a new religion, telling people how to live their lives and telling them what they should or should not do in quite an absolutist manor.
Also the fact that the law equates a clergy and social worker implies a consistency in their tasks. They both advise people on right and wrong, on inappropriate and appropriate. How far this falls from real science......
It would also appear that love is quite blind.
Yes, I really do
From The Economist print edition
An uxorious state governor urges his people to stay married
UNTIL death do us part: well, up to a point, anyway. On Valentine's Day, February 14th, the governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, and his wife Janet will hold a party for more than a thousand couples who think that a mere “I do” amounts to minor-league marriage. The Huckabees, who have been married for 30 years, will renew their wedding vows at a mass “covenant-marriage” ceremony in a local sports arena. Other couples will sign a covenant-marriage declaration of intent which, once filed at the courthouse in the county where they live, converts ordinary marriages into a deeper commitment.
In 2001, Arkansas passed the Covenant Marriage Act. Couples who choose this path are required to agree to pre-marital counselling by a clergyman or a therapist and a two-year “cooling-off” period before a divorce can be granted. The only exceptions are the three As: abuse, abandonment or adultery. Couples hit by one of these qualify immediately for judicial separation, but still have to wait two years for a divorce.
Arkansas followed the lead of neighbouring Louisiana, the first state to enact covenant-marriage legislation, in 1997, and Arizona, which did it in 1998. Last year Iowa passed a pre-marital counselling law. Arkansas has the second-highest divorce rate in the country. Only Nevada, with its quickie divorces, beats this Bible-belt state.
Mr Huckabee is going centre-stage because he wants his state's divorce rate halved in ten years. A Southern Baptist minister turned politician, he is urging couples to think twice about marriage (hence the pre-marital counselling) and, if they do get hitched, to realise that parting is not just a matter of signing a piece of paper and dividing up the music collection. Things are not going all that fast. So far, in three years, only 600 Arkansas couples have chosen a covenant-marriage licence. The state has more than 40,000 marriages a year.
The point of covenant marriage is not to make divorce impossible (a couple can always travel to another state and do it there) but to make it harder. In a covenant marriage, a person cannot refuse counselling to save the marriage; that would be in breach of the covenant. In the past few months, many Arkansas churches have been urging their congregations to covenant their marriages, with testimonials from couples who have already accepted the tighter bond. Mr Huckabee has taken part in public- service advertisements for the Valentine's Day event, which will involve some well-known churchmen from around the country and CeCe Winans, a Grammy-award-winning gospel singer.
Many Arkansas couples will share chocolates and champagne on Monday, and profess their love with furry teddy bears. Others will get into a church bus to go to the Huckabees' celebration and sign a legal document. Less romantic, maybe, but probably longer-lasting.
No comments:
Post a Comment