My “Covenant” Marriage

In spite of a serious budget crisis, deteriorating schools and roads, and an economy teetering on the edge of disaster, our intrepid Kansas legislators forge ahead, valiantly focused on the important issues. These noble guardians of our morals keep their eyes firmly focused on the big picture. They toil endlessly on banning fake reefer and perfecting the definition of marriage. How blessed we are in Kansas to have these dedicated protectors of our honor. Consider, for example, the covenant marriage amendment. I was in a sacramental marriage. We were wed in one of those major churches, the one whose ministers can't seem to keep their hands to themselves. The accoustics must have been bad in the church that day. I thought we vowed before God and everyone to "forsake all others." He heard "date all others." After twenty years, I'd had enough and got a divorce, the real kind, from a court. I've no idea if he's gotten his church divorce; if he has, I wasn't informed. Our marriage was both civil and religious. The religious aspect was irrelevant to the legal aspects, such as division of property and child custody. There was no need to drag our dirty laundry into court in order to remove myself from this dreadful situation. After all, to the state, marriage is nothing more than a contract. No fault divorce allowed me to break that contract after the marriage itself had broken. Unlike my marriage, divorce was a godsend.
If religious organisms wish to make rules regulating marriage for their members, by all means they should do so. However, the covenant marriage amendment is nothing more than a blatant attempt to impose a religious obligation on civil marriage. It is an affront to common sense and the protection that no fault divorce offers to those caught in untenable wedlock. If our legislators wish to preach, perhaps they should get out of the statehouse and into the pulpit.