Sunday, February 02, 2003
The Rapid City Journal
February 1, 2004
Strengthen marriage
If the issue was really about "strengthening" marriage, we could constitutionally require a one-year minimum engagement. Limit the benefits, tax breaks, insurance, health benefits only to a first marriage, and begin them after a fifth anniversary, or legally bind all marriages to a minimum of five years before divorce and/or remarriage would be allowed. Automatically annul vows upon report of rape, domestic abuse, abortion, or documented affair (granted, this would mean some "family" leaders and talk show hosts would be single). Require that the bride herself pick up the tab for the wedding, without support from her parents.
If marriage exists only "for procreation," limit it to couples that can prove they have the means to support a child through 18 years, and annul unions that don't produce offspring in the first year.
Evangelical "family" groups and councils are hungry for the $1.5 billion planned to "promote" marriage, with goals not to create superior unions, but to only acknowledge the love and committed relationships of "the right people." Not surprisingly, an ABC News poll found that Evangelical Christians (2.1 percent of the population) are the only group who actually supports amending the constitution to "protect marriage."
February 1, 2004
Strengthen marriage
If the issue was really about "strengthening" marriage, we could constitutionally require a one-year minimum engagement. Limit the benefits, tax breaks, insurance, health benefits only to a first marriage, and begin them after a fifth anniversary, or legally bind all marriages to a minimum of five years before divorce and/or remarriage would be allowed. Automatically annul vows upon report of rape, domestic abuse, abortion, or documented affair (granted, this would mean some "family" leaders and talk show hosts would be single). Require that the bride herself pick up the tab for the wedding, without support from her parents.
If marriage exists only "for procreation," limit it to couples that can prove they have the means to support a child through 18 years, and annul unions that don't produce offspring in the first year.
Evangelical "family" groups and councils are hungry for the $1.5 billion planned to "promote" marriage, with goals not to create superior unions, but to only acknowledge the love and committed relationships of "the right people." Not surprisingly, an ABC News poll found that Evangelical Christians (2.1 percent of the population) are the only group who actually supports amending the constitution to "protect marriage."
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