At first blush, it might seem like none of the government's business if somebody marries, or divorces.
Many economists, sociologists and psychologists argue, however, that what happens in the home directly affects spending by the House and Senate.
From welfare to crime to health issues, broken homes lead to problems that cost taxpayers millions, marriage advocates maintain.
"If someone's car crashes, there's an insurance company," said Diane Sollee, founder of the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education in Washington.
"When someone's marriage fails, it's the government that has to step in and try to pick up the pieces."
Sollee, a self-described liberal Democrat, knows a bit about divorce. Her husband left her for his secretary after 18 years of marriage.
She spent years, she said, "as part of the expert brigade that says marriage doesn't matter, kids do fine either way."
Then research kept crossing Sollee's desk that proved just the opposite, she said.
Sollee is a fan of Gov. Frank Keating, a conservative Republican, and the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative.
Keating launched the marriage initiative three years ago, setting a goal of reducing the state's No. 2-in-the-nation divorce rate by one-third by 2010.
A year later, he became the first governor in the nation to set aside Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds, $10 million in all, to support programs aimed at strengthening marriages.
However some, including the governor, would like to see the Legislature take more drastic action.
Keating has urged lawmakers to enact a covenant marriage law and outlaw no-fault divorce.
"Every session I try, but there doesn't seem to be much support," Keating said of those proposals.
State Rep. Joe Sweeden, D- Pawhuska, said he likes parts of Keating's marriage initiative and dislikes others. He declined to be more specific.
Like the governor, Sweeden said Oklahoma must attack a divorce rate that the legislator described as "quite scary."
Sweeden is pushing House Bill 2668, dubbed the "Marriage Preparation and Preservation Act of 2002."
As written, the bill would require a 30-day waiting period to receive a marriage license unless a couple provided evidence of premarital counseling.
The bill also would add "life- managing skills including marriage and relationship skills- based education" to the state's public school curriculum.
Sweeden called the bill a work in progress and said he's open to suggestions.
"My purpose is to try to keep people married," he said. "I'm going to try to keep it alive, and we're going to continue to work with it in the session."
Laws and hearts Since 1997, three states, Arizona, Louisiana and Arkansas, have passed covenant marriage laws.
Under such laws, couples can choose a covenant marriage license or a standard marriage license.
A covenant marriage license requires premarital classes, mandates counseling for marital problems and makes it more difficult for a couple to divorce. On the other hand, a couple with a standard marriage license can skip the counseling and divorce for virtually any reason.
Rep. Ray Vaughn, R-Edmond, and Sen. Owen Laughlin, R- Woodward, have filed covenant marriage bills this session, but neither holds out much hope for passage.
"It's always been a struggle to get it heard by committee," Laughlin said.
Laughlin's bill was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Brad Henry, D-Shawnee, an attorney. Henry did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Katherine Spaht, a Louisiana State University family law professor, wrote Louisiana's covenant marriage law. Spaht said lawyers have killed covenant marriage proposals in several states.
"The lawyers make a lot of money off no-fault divorce, and it was the best thing that ever happened to them," Spaht said. "They will fight to the death any divorce reform because it's a matter of their own pocketbook.
"In a number of states, divorce reform bills are referred to committees with a number of lawyers. Inevitably, they die in committee."
Most states have focused not on making divorce more difficult, but on strengthening marriages, said Christi Goodman, senior policy specialist with the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures.
"Some of the ways states are strengthening marriages include marital counseling and marriage education programs, reducing license fees for couples who complete premarital counseling, and reducing the state tax burden on married couples," Goodman said.
Steven Nock, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, is conducting a five-year study comparing couples who choose covenant marriages with those who opt for standard marriage licenses.
So far, Nock said, he's found that covenant marriage couples tend to be more conservative, more educated, more religious, more connected to friends and family and less likely to have lived together before marriage.
Midway through the study, Nock and his co-researchers report many more divorces among those with standard marriage licenses, but it's still unclear whether the covenant marriage, or other factors, make that the case.
One thing is certain, Nock said: Covenant marriage laws have more to do with economics than morality.
"The leading cause of poverty in the United States is divorce, and the one who pays for the consequences ... is the state government," he said.
Contract vs. covenant Supporters stress that obtaining a covenant marriage license would be optional.
The idea, they say, is to make couples think about the long- range implications of saying, "I do."
"A contract is based upon mutual distrust," said the Rev. Tom Elliff, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Del City. "A covenant is based upon mutual trust.
"Actually, a covenant marriage means that the two parties are entering into a covenant with God and saying, 'Our intention is to be married until death do we part.' ... They say, 'Look, we may have problems, but God has the solution for everything we may face.'"
Elliff is a former Southern Baptist Convention president who leads the convention's Council on Family Life. At their annual national meeting last year, Southern Baptists endorsed covenant marriages and urged states to make that legal option available.
Others say the government can't legislate love, respect and commitment.
"Thinking you can may take away the needed effort to achieve them," said the Rev. Michael McEwen, priest at St. David's Episcopal Church in Oklahoma City. "I think the kind of intensive, church-based counseling we do in my denomination is more likely to work than legal sanctions."
Critics point out that only about 3 percent of couples in Louisiana and Arizona have opted for covenant marriage licenses.
In Louisiana, the covenant marriage option has suffered from a lack of support from court clerks and mainline church leaders, Spaht said.
"My impression ... is that churches have become secularized, and they've forgotten what the Gospel says about divorce," she said.
"They're dealing with congregations in which virtually everyone is touched by divorce. They don't want to talk about it, and they sure don't want to preach about it."
In Arkansas, Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor, pushed for the covenant marriage law that passed last year, said Chris Pyle, Huckabee's director of family policy.
"We're not relying on the county clerks or any of the government bureaucracy in terms of strategy," Pyle said. "We know that the vast majority of marriages occur in a church, so we're going to the churches."
Among the converts is the Rev. Mark Evans, senior pastor of Little Rock's Church at Rock Creek. Evans said he won't marry any couple who refuse to fulfill requirements for a covenant marriage license.
"I try to encourage ... couples to get ready for the storm before it hits," Evans said.
Content copyrighted, 2002 The Oklahoman