"I Promise to Love, Honor, Obey . . . and Not Divorce You": Covenant Marriage and the Backlash Against No-Fault Divorce

Family Law Quarterly

Volumn 34, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 133-147

  Flory, Heather ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE   (United States)

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EID: 0034559280     PISSN: 0014729X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (94)

1. While touted as groundbreaking legislation, "covenant marriage" is not a new idea. A covenant marriage bill was introduced in the Florida legislature in 1990 but was never acted upon. Katherine Spaht, Beyond Baehr: Strengthening the Definition of Marriage, 12 BYU J. PUB. L. 277, 291 (1998).
2. Attributing many of society's problems to liberal no-fault divorce laws, supporters of covenant marriage legislation represented the act as a "way to reverse the trend of the disintegration of the American family." News and Views from the Louisiana Capitol, NEW ORLEANS TIME-PICAYUNE, June 21, 1998, available in 1998 WL 6279624.
3. See generally Melissa S. LaBauve, Comment, Covenant Marriages: A Guise for Lasting Commitment, 43 LOY. L. REV. 421 (1997).
4. Joe Laconte, I'll Stand Bayou, POLICY REVIEW, May 1, 1998, at 30, available in WL 15013972.
5. States considering covenant marriage legislation include: Nebraska, Ohio, and Alabama, S. 606, Reg. Sess. (Ala. 1998); California, S. 1377, Reg. Sess. (Cal. 1997); Georgia, H. 249, 144th Gen. Ass. (Ga. 1997); Indiana, H. 1052, 100th Gen. Ass., 2d. Reg. Sess. (Ind. 1998); Kansas, H. 2839, 77th Reg. Sess. (Kan 1998); Minnesota, S. 2935, 80th Reg. Sess. (Minn. 1998); Mississippi, H. 1645, Reg. Sess. (Miss 1998); Missouri, H. 1864, 89th Gen. Ass, 2d Reg. Sess. (Mo. 1998); Oklahoma, H 2208, 46th Leg., 2d. Sess. (Okla. 1998); South Carolina, S. 961, Gen. Ass. 112th Reg. Sess. (S.C. 1998); Tennessee, H. 2101, 100th Gen. Ass. (Tenn. 1998), Virginia, H. 1056, Reg. Sess. (Va. 1998); Washington, S. 6135, 55th Leg. (Wash. 1998); West Virginia, H. 4562, 73d Leg. Reg. Sess. (W. Va. 1998).
6. Studies show that legislation similar to Louisiana's covenant marriage act is favored by the general public in France. A poll by the French magazine Paris Match found that 72% of those surveyed feel divorce is too easy to get. Nicole Gaouette, France Asks "What Is a Family?," Nov. 28, 1997, available in WL 2805506. Last year in Britain, the government passed a bill ending quickie divorce unless no children are involved or there is a clear instance of violence in the marriage. Alanna Mitchell, For a Third, Love's Bliss Will Falter, GLOBE & MAIL, Oct. 10,1997, at B6.
7. Studies show that legislation similar to Louisiana's covenant marriage act is favored by the general public in France. A poll by the French magazine Paris Match found that 72% of those surveyed feel divorce is too easy to get. Nicole Gaouette, France Asks "What Is a Family?," Nov. 28, 1997, available in WL 2805506. Last year in Britain, the government passed a bill ending quickie divorce unless no children are involved or there is a clear instance of violence in the marriage. Alanna Mitchell, For a Third, Love's Bliss Will Falter, GLOBE & MAIL, Oct. 10,1997, at B6.
8. Christine B. Whelan, No Honeymoon for Covenant Marriage, WALL ST. J., Aug. 17, 1998, available in 1998 WL-WSJ 3505587.
9. While covenant marriage has only been adopted in Arizona and Louisiana to date, the debate in the media and legal community alike rages on. For examples of current legal analysis, see Katherine Shaw Spaht, For the Sake of the Children: Recapturing the Meaning of Marriage, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1547 (1998); Jeanne Louise Carriere, "It's Deja Vu All Over Again": The Covenant Marriage Act in Popular Cultural Perception and Legal Reality, 72 TUL. L. REV 1701 (1998); Melissa Lawton, Note, The Constitutionality of Covenant Marriage Laws, 66 FORDHAM L. REV. 2471 (1998); Nicole D. Lindsey, Note, Marriage and Divorce: Degrees of "I Do," An Analysis of the Ever Changing Paradigm of Divorce, 9 U. FLA. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 265 (1998); La Bauve, supra note 3.
10. While covenant marriage has only been adopted in Arizona and Louisiana to date, the debate in the media and legal community alike rages on. For examples of current legal analysis, see Katherine Shaw Spaht, For the Sake of the Children: Recapturing the Meaning of Marriage, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1547 (1998); Jeanne Louise Carriere, "It's Deja Vu All Over Again": The Covenant Marriage Act in Popular Cultural Perception and Legal Reality, 72 TUL. L. REV 1701 (1998); Melissa Lawton, Note, The Constitutionality of Covenant Marriage Laws, 66 FORDHAM L. REV. 2471 (1998); Nicole D. Lindsey, Note, Marriage and Divorce: Degrees of "I Do," An Analysis of the Ever Changing Paradigm of Divorce, 9 U. FLA. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 265 (1998); La Bauve, supra note 3.
11. While covenant marriage has only been adopted in Arizona and Louisiana to date, the debate in the media and legal community alike rages on. For examples of current legal analysis, see Katherine Shaw Spaht, For the Sake of the Children: Recapturing the Meaning of Marriage, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1547 (1998); Jeanne Louise Carriere, "It's Deja Vu All Over Again": The Covenant Marriage Act in Popular Cultural Perception and Legal Reality, 72 TUL. L. REV 1701 (1998); Melissa Lawton, Note, The Constitutionality of Covenant Marriage Laws, 66 FORDHAM L. REV. 2471 (1998); Nicole D. Lindsey, Note, Marriage and Divorce: Degrees of "I Do," An Analysis of the Ever Changing Paradigm of Divorce, 9 U. FLA. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 265 (1998); La Bauve, supra note 3.
12. While covenant marriage has only been adopted in Arizona and Louisiana to date, the debate in the media and legal community alike rages on. For examples of current legal analysis, see Katherine Shaw Spaht, For the Sake of the Children: Recapturing the Meaning of Marriage, 73 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1547 (1998); Jeanne Louise Carriere, "It's Deja Vu All Over Again": The Covenant Marriage Act in Popular Cultural Perception and Legal Reality, 72 TUL. L. REV 1701 (1998); Melissa Lawton, Note, The Constitutionality of Covenant Marriage Laws, 66 FORDHAM L. REV. 2471 (1998); Nicole D. Lindsey, Note, Marriage and Divorce: Degrees of "I Do," An Analysis of the Ever Changing Paradigm of Divorce, 9 U. FLA. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 265 (1998); La Bauve, supra note 3.
13. Grounds for dissolution of covenant marriage are provided in LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:307 (West 1999) and ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 25-903 (1999).
14. For provisions relating to pre-marital counseling, see LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:273 (West 2000); ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 25-901(B)(2)( 1999). As for programs in marriage education, see FLA. STAT. ANN. § 232.246 (1999).
15. EDWARD L. KAIN, THE MYTH OF FAMILY DECLINE: UNDERSTANDING FAMILIES IN A WORLD OF RAPID SOCIAL CHANGE 4 (1990).
16. See e.g., STEVEN MINTZ AND SUSAN KELLOG, DOMESTIC REVOLUTION: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN FAMILY LIFE 109 (1988). In response to a rapidly rising divorce rate during the nineteenth century, state legislatures across the country sought to tighten divorce statutes to discourage marital separation. The statutory grounds for divorce were reduced from over 400 to fewer than twenty. The process of applying for divorce was also made more stringent. By 1920, reformers convinced that the law's adversarial approach to divorce was harmful for both spouse and children, recommended a variety of changes in divorce proceedings, including mandatory counseling, non-adversarial divorce proceedings, and greater availability of divorce on grounds of mental cruelty and incompatibility.
17. NELSON BLAKE, THE ROAD TO RENO: A HISTORY OF DIVORCE IN THE UNITED STATES 80 (1962).
18. The first "pure" no-fault divorce fault statute was enacted in California in 1969. The California statute has been described as "pure" because it based divorce exclusively on the factual breakdown of the marriage. ALLEN M. PARKMAN, NO FAULT DIVORCE: WHAT WENT WRONG? (1992).
19. Jennifer Barrs, State of The Union: Americans Seek to Reduce Divorce, TAMPA TRIBUNE, June 15, 1998, available in 1998 WL 277925.
20. BARBARA DAFOE WHITEHEAD, THE DIVORCE CULTURE 13 (1997): . . . the Colonists saw the highly restrictive English divorce law and practice as a sign of the Crown's illegitimate authority, which they sought to defy by liberalizing colonial divorce practices. This tradition also had roots in religious dissent. Puritan dissenters took issue with the conservatism of the Church of England in retaining Roman Catholic doctrines respecting divorce. As such, the Puritan strongholds of Massachusetts and Connecticut had the most liberal provisions for divorce as well as the most divorces in the seventeenth century.
21. A pamphlet entitled "An Essay on Marriage, or the Lawfulness of Divorce" reflected on the "misery of marriage in those who are unsuitably united," noting that a nation "famous for her love of liberty should extend that same spirit of indulgence to those united together in the worst bondage." Id. at 15.
22. See BLAKE, supra note 13.
23. HERBERT JACOB, SILENT REVOLUTION: THE TRANSFORMATION OF DIVORCE LAW IN THE UNITED STATES 17 (1988).
24. By 1916, in San Francisco, one out of every four marriages ended in divorce; in Los Angeles, one out of every five; in Chicago, one out of seven. See MINTZ & KELLOG, supra note 12, at 108-09.
25. Id. at 179.
26. See WHITEHEAD, supra note 16, at 17.
27. Id.
28. The use of "hotel perjury" was widespread during the height of fault-based divorce. In trying to secure a divorce based on the grounds of adultery, couples would "team up" to recreate the famous hotel scene. Couples arranged for the husband to be caught in the act of "sitting beside a scantily clad" anonymous female (preferably blonde) when the wife, a process server, and private detective armed with a camera burst in. This practice became common knowledge when an expose in the New York Mirror lead with the headline "I Was the Unknown Blonde in 100 NY Divorces." J. HERBERT DIFONZO, BENEATH THE FAULT LINE: THE POPULAR AND LEGAL CULTURE OF DIVORCE IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICA 89 (1997).
29. Termed a "poor man's divorce," the practice of dissolving marriage by the departure of a husband or wife remained the only option for those without the financial resources to gain a "proper" divorce. MARY ANN GLENDON, THE TRANSFORMATION OF FAMILY LAW: STATE, LAW, AND FAMILY IN THE UNITED STATES AND WESTERN EUROPE 148 (1989).
30. See supra note 8, at 268.
31. See DIVORCE REFORM AT THE CROSSROADS (Stephen D. Sugarman & Herma Hill Kay eds. 1990).
32. See PARKMAN, supra note 14, at 1.
33. Id.
34. For a discussion of the no-fault divorce movement, see generally MARY ANN GLENDON, ABORTION AND DIVORCE IN WESTERN LAW (1987); WILLIAM J. GOODE, WORLD CHANGES IN DIVORCE PATTERNS (1993), See JACOB, supra note 19; MINTZ & KELLOG, supra note 12; DIVORCE REFORM AT CROSSROADS, supra note 27; WHITEHEAD, supra note 16.
35. For a discussion of the no-fault divorce movement, see generally MARY ANN GLENDON, ABORTION AND DIVORCE IN WESTERN LAW (1987); WILLIAM J. GOODE, WORLD CHANGES IN DIVORCE PATTERNS (1993), See JACOB, supra note 19; MINTZ & KELLOG, supra note 12; DIVORCE REFORM AT CROSSROADS, supra note 27; WHITEHEAD, supra note 16.
36. For a discussion of the no-fault divorce movement, see generally MARY ANN GLENDON, ABORTION AND DIVORCE IN WESTERN LAW (1987); WILLIAM J. GOODE, WORLD CHANGES IN DIVORCE PATTERNS (1993), See JACOB, supra note 19; MINTZ & KELLOG, supra note 12; DIVORCE REFORM AT CROSSROADS, supra note 27; WHITEHEAD, supra note 16.
37. No-fault reforms were generally given good marks within the legal community. Concentrating on the objectives shared in the legal community, it was concluded that no fault had in fact achieved its purpose in reducing fraud and stress. A survey of judges and attorneys in Iowa concluded: "The elimination of the specific fault based grounds for divorce resulted in a more honest and civilized approach void of the fraud, perjury, and abuse other parties frequently employed in divorce proceedings under the old law." See PARKMAN, supra note 14, at 154.
38. Katha Pollit, Why Covenant Marriages Could Be Harmful to Kids, SAC. BEE, Jul. 12, 1997, at B7.
39. The problems associated with divorce and single motherhood have been a central tenet of religious-based political organizations such as the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition. In fact, the Christian Coalition has been one of the strongest supporters of covenant marriage, including it on their platform for the 1997-98 legislative session. A Glance at Issues Used By the Christian Coalition, Assoc. PRESS, June 17, 1998, available in 1998 WL 7423331.
40. As divorce laws made it less painful, time consuming, and expensive to get a divorce, divorce rates increased exponentially. The correlation between these two trends has been at the heart of the divorce reform movement. Pointing to figures that the liberalization of divorce laws was accompanied by the highest divorce rates in our nation's history, critics have called for the repeal of no-fault divorce laws as a means to preserve the sanctity of marriage. Mary Lynn Vellinga, Opinions Split on Restoring Blame in Divorce Law, Nov. 16, 1997, available in 1997 WL 4059891.
41. Touted as being child friendly, no-fault divorce was intended to improve the lives of children by sparing them the bitter disputes of a prolonged court battle. Two decades later, no-fault divorce has been blamed for destroying children's lives. One study indicated that divorce affected the emotional, educational, and financial well-being of children. In fact Weitzman reported that while men's standard of living increased 42% following divorce, women's decreased by 73%. See LENORE J. WEITZMAN, DIVORCE REVOLUTION: THE UNEXPECTED SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN AMERICA (1981). Note that Weitzman's findings have been challenged by a number of scholars, including Jana Singer, Herbert Jacob, and Stephen Sugarman.
42. While no-fault divorce was heralded as "liberating" for women trapped in unhealthy marriages, studies reveal that it is women who are disproportionately impacted following divorce with a decline in standard of living. Considering that women retain custody of children following 90% of divorces, the financial effect becomes even more profound. Elizabeth S. Scott, Rational Decisionmaking About Marriage and Divorce, 76 VA. L. REV. 9, 33 (1990).
43. As one commentator surmised, "for some time now, to be pro-family has largely boiled down to one thing: being against divorce." Hara Estroff Marano, A New Focus on Family Values, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, Nov. 21, 1997, at 52.
44. See DIFONZO, supra note 24, at 175.
45. LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:272 (West 1999).
46. Under Louisiana's Covenant Marriage Act, a divorce can only be granted on the basis of fault, including adultery, felony, physical/sexual abuse, intemperance, and desertion. LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:307 (West 1999).
47. As Rep. Tony Perkins, sponsor of the covenant marriage legislation in Louisiana indicates, "We have been dealing with the symptoms, things like teenage pregnancy and juvenile delinquency, when the social sciences have been telling us that the source of the problems lie in broken homes . . . . Covenant marriage sends a strong message to the community that they are committed to marriage." Ashli Simms, Lawmaker Talks on Avoiding Divorce Cycle, TULSA WORLD, Jul. 19, 1998, available in 1998 WL 11145446.
48. For a list of states considering covenant marriage, see supra note 5. Compare New Jersey, which recently adopted a faster no-fault divorce for couples with no children. Peggy O'Crowly, The Marriage Go Round: Are Shaky Marriages Worth Saving?, THE STAR LEDGER, Jul. 26, 1998, available in 1998 WL 3433858.
49. ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 25-901 (1999).
50. See CARRIERE, supra note 8.
51. Among those supporting premarital counseling are Ira Lurvey, Chair of the ABA Family Law Section. Terry Carter, A Stealth Anti-Divorce Weapon, A.B.A.J., Sept. 1997, at 128.
52. While figures from Arizona are not yet available, only 1% of couples in Louisiana have chosen covenant marriage so far. Christine B. Whelan, No Honeymoon for Covenant Marriage, WALL ST. J., Aug. 17, 1998, available in 1998 WL-WSJ 3505587.
53. A Time/CNN poll indicates that only 50% of those surveyed felt it should be harder for married couples to get a divorce. Walter Kirn, The Ties That Bind, TIME, Aug. 18, 1997, available in WL 10902785.
54. Joanna Weiss, Covenant Marriage Has No Takers on Its First Day, NEW ORLEANS TIMES- PICAYUNE, Aug. 16, 1997 at Al, available in WL 12661020.
55. ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 25-903(4) (1999) (providing that divorce may be granted where spouse has physically or sexually abused spouse seeking dissolution); LA. REV. STAT ANN. § 9:307(a)(4) (West 1999).
56. See JACOB, supra note 19, at 81.
57. See Lawton, supra note 8, at 2478.
58. This is particularly disturbing when considering the type of people entering covenant marriage - deeply religious people less inclined to divorce under any regime. As studies show in fact, the majority of people who enter marriage do not expect divorce. See Lynn A. Baker & Robert Emery, When Every Relationship Is Above Average: Perceptions and Expectations of Divorce at the Time of Marriage, 17 LAW. & HUM. BEH. 439, 440-446 (1993) (finding that while the median response of marriage license applicants to the question of the likelihood of divorce in the U.S. population was 50%, the median response to the question of the likelihood that they would divorce was 0%).
59. ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 25-903(8) (1999).
60. Id.
61. Control over the spouse is often at the heart of abuse. As one scholar indicated, "men who (abuse) their wives describe their feelings of loss of control over the woman as a primary factor; most frequently, the man expresses the fear that the woman was about to abandon him." Martha Mahoney, Legal Images of Battered Women: Redefining the Issue of Separation, 90 MICH. L. REV. 65 (1991).
62. See BLAKE, supra note 13, at 158.
63. See DIFONSO, supra note 24, at 89.
64. Under the current act, couples still have the option of what the Irish termed a Liverpool divorce, a de facto divorce or desertion. In the past, desertion has been used as a remedy in the United States for those unable to obtain a divorce. See BLAKE, supra note 13, at 202.
65. Katharine T. Bartlett, Saving the Family from Reformers, 31 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 809, 825 (1998) (citing study by Ira Ellman indicating that no-fault Western states and fault-oriented Southern states had similar divorce rates).
66. MAX RHEINSTEIN, MARRIAGE, STABILITY, DIVORCE, AND THE LAW 453(1972) (showing that states with stricter divorce laws have higher separation rates). Today in Chile where divorce is illegal, "it is estimated that nearly half of all married adults have separated unofficially."
67. Anthony Farola, Chile Debates Dropping Divorce Ban, WASH. POST, Aug. 5, 1997, at A12.
68. See DIVORCE REFORM AT THE CROSSROADS, supra note 27 at 3; POLLITT, supra note 32 (Challenging anti-divorce crusaders "who present themselves as defending women whom they portray as dutiful homemakers who risk abandonment by novelty seeking mates. But women have filed the majority of divorce petitions for decades now; sometimes the dutiful homemaker is the one who gets fed up.").
69. RODERICK PHILLIPS, PUTTING ASUNDER: A HISTORY OF DIVORCE IN WESTERN SOCIETY 582 (1988).
70. See KAIN, supra note 11, at 79.
71. Arguably, this is something that at least one religious denomination would support. During the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention, leaders adopted a declaration that while "husbands and wives are equal before God, wives must submit graciously to the leadership of their husbands even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ." Tom Teepen, Powers Grab Won't Help Family Life, ATLANTA CON., June 16,1998, available in 1998 WL 3699031.
72. See SIMMS, supra note 41.
73. In explaining this philosophy, Perkins compares marriage to buying a new car. "Making those payments for the first 12 months aren't a problem. But you get into the third, fourth, and fifth year of making those payments, the car is getting a little old and you're not so excited about making those payments." Ellen Goodman, Defining Matrimony, PITT. POST GAZETTE, Aug. 20, 1997, available in 1997 WL 11840109.
74. As one supporter of covenant marriage indicated, "The idea we want to get across is that love is wonderful . . . we want to get kids to know what to look for in a relationship." Zinie Chin, Couples Get Help in Building Successful Relationships, AP POL. SERVICE, available in 1997 WL 2563082.
75. See LaBauve, supra note 3.
76. Thomas B. Marvell, Divorce Rates and the Fault Requirement, 23 L. & SOC'Y REV. 543, 547 (1989) (indicating that legal changes in America had little or no effect on divorce rates).
77. ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 25-904(5) (1999); LA. REV. STAT. § 9:307(5) (West 1999).
78. As one state congressman considering a version of Covenant Marriage explained, mandatory counseling and a waiting period "would have saved my marriage." Tennessee State Rep. Howard Kerr proposed legislation entitled the "Marriage Conservation Act" which called for "counseling and mediation to resolve differences." Kerr, who went through a divorce himself recently, indicated that "[t]he truth of the matter is that our divorce should never have happened. The system ought not to facilitate destruction of marriage. It ought to help save them." In Kerr's case an episode of adultery "drove a wedge in his marriage" that the system "should have helped remove, not drive it in." Tom Humphrey, Lawmaker Wants Divorce Law Revised, KNOX. NEWS SENT., Jan. 26, 1998 at A4.
79. Historical data on mandatory marital counseling indicates that such requirements have had little impact. In the 1950s, New Jersey established quasi-mandatory marriage counseling as a concomitant of divorce actions in two districts. Within three years the experiment was abandoned as "a massive failure." Of 2,293 cases referred to the divorce counselors, only 57 had been reconciled, a failure rate of 97.3%. See DIFONZO, supra note 24, at 136.
80. See Lindsey, supra note 8, at 282.
81. Difficult Divorces May Add to Misery, THE ADVOCATE (Baton Rouge, La.), June 13, 1997, at 10B.
82. See Lawton, supra note 8, at 2478.
83. See generally JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN ET AL., BEYOND THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD (1973) (suggesting a psychological standard in child custody disputes).
84. ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 25-901(B)(2) (1999); LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:273 (West 1999). The Louisiana statute provides: Premarital counseling shall include a discussion of the seriousness of covenant marriage, communication of the fact that a covenant marriage is a commitment for life, a discussion of the obligation to seek marital counseling in times of marital difficulties and a discussion of the exclusive grounds for legally terminating a covenant marriage by dissolution of marriage or legal separation.
85. Significantly, the Catholic Church has refused to endorse covenant marriage, noting that the law requires counselors to explain the higher standards of divorce, a subject matter bishops said their employees will not explore in Catholic marriage preparation programs. "To do so would confuse or obscure the integrity" of church teaching on the permanence of marriage. Bruce Nolan, Catholic Bishops to Bless Either Form of Civil Marriage in Louisiana, THE ADVOCATE (Baton Rouge, LA.) October 31, 1999, at 12B.
86. See O'Crowley, supra note 42.
87. Richard Wolf, States Slow to Plunge into Covenant Marriage, USA TODAY, June 16, 1998, available in 1998 WL 5727734.
88. Based on a program called "Marriage Savers," the community marriage policy is coordinated by religious leaders in eighty communities across the nation. Couples wishing to marry in a community marriage policy church must participate in a "premarital boot camp" which includes substantive marriage preparation classes and weekend marriage retreats. Jennifer Barrs, Marriage, Divorce, TAMPA TRIB., June 14, 1998, available in 1998 WL 279144.
89. A study by Allan Booth indicates: It takes much less unhappiness to get a divorce than it did before. . . . The standards have changed. The expectations are high and it is easier to fail. Years ago, a marriage had many more facets - people were expected to be married, to have children. Women unhappily married stayed together. . . . Now the only things expected to fulfill the marriage are social support and self-fulfillment, and that's not very good material to try to build a relationship around. Stephanie Ebbert, Starter Marriages: Young Divorcees Sadder But Wiser, PATRIOT NEWS, Sep. 9, 1997, available in 1997 WL 7531115.
90. Id.
91. See O'Crowley, supra note 42.
92. This was demonstrated by the first couple to choose covenant marriage. As a local newspaper recounts, the couple arrived at the parish courthouse without having undergone counseling. Fortunately, there was a reverend in the same building who had a day job in the personnel department. The reverend briefly counseled the couple on the rule of covenant marriage and minutes later the justice of the peace notarized the forms. Joanna Weiss, Covenant Couple: New Vows Make Breaking Up Harder to Do, TIMES PICAYUNE, Aug. 19, 1997.
93. See Carriere, supra note 8, at 1707.
94. Ira Lurvey, chair of the ABA Family Law Section. Carter, supra note 45.