[lbo-talk] FT: Family Values are Destroying Marriage

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Wed Jan 26 17:19:38 PST 2005


[And naturally, if reality proves exactly the opposite of what you predicted, the solution is to PUSH HARDER. That square peg will get in that round hole yet.]

[Note that if you want really low divorce rates, you have to go to godless Europe. They beat even Massachusetts.]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/54940a8a-6dad-11d9-ae0d-00000e2511c8.html

Financial Times

January 24 2005

South finds families that pray together may not stay together

By Andrew Ward

When Massachusetts became the first and so far only US state to

legalise gay marriage last year, the loudest protests came from the

south. Bible Belt states such as Georgia and Alabama portrayed

themselves as the defenders of traditional family values against

Godless liberals in the north-east.

However, surveys of marriage and divorce across the 50 states paint a

very different picture of US society. They show that the most stable

families are concentrated in the easy-going north-east, while the

God-fearing south has the most broken homes.

Southern states account for eight of the 10 highest divorce rates,

while nine of the 10 lowest are in the north-east, according to the US

Census Bureau.

Massachusetts, home of John Kerry, the unsuccessful presidential

candidate, has the lowest rate at 2.4 divorces per 1,000 people,

against 4.1 in President George W. Bush's Texas.

Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee - states in which it is

common to see the Ten Commandments displayed outside rural homes -

have an average rate of 5.6, above the national average of 4.

The statistics are an embarrassment to a region that has always

trumpeted the slogan: "Families that pray together stay together."

Some southern lawmakers appear to be slowly recognising that the most

urgent threat to family values comes not from homosexuals in

Massachusetts but from disintegrating marriages within their own

states.

Republican senators in Georgia are pushing a bill through the state

legislature that would lengthen the waiting time for a divorce

involving children from 30 days to six months and force divorcing

parents to attend counselling sessions.

"A cooling-off period gives people the chance to see what it's like to

live apart and share custody of children," says Senator Mitch

Seabaugh, co-sponsor of the bill. "Many divorcees have told me that a

longer waiting period might have saved their marriage."

A similar bill was blocked last year by Democratic lawmakers but the

latest version stands a good chance of success after the Republicans

seized control of both houses of the state legislature in November's

election.

The bill is part of a flurry of socially conservative legislation

under consideration in southern states as the Republicans strengthen

their control of the region.

Lawmakers in Georgia have also promised legislation to make it more

difficult for women to get an abortion.

Critics have accused Georgia Republicans of meddling in people's

private lives. But Senator Nancy Schaefer, another co-sponsor of the

divorce bill, says the heavy social and economic cost of marriage

breakdowns makes intervention essential.

According to Ms Schaefer, divorce costs Georgia $1bn (EUR770m, £530m)

a year or about $30,000 per divorce in direct and indirect costs,

including increased welfare and Medicaid payments to broken homes.

She believes her proposed legislation would cut divorce by 25 per

cent, saving Georgia $250m a year.

Ms Schaefer cites research showing divorced women are five times more

likely to live in poverty, while children of divorced parents are

seven times more likely to end up in poverty, twice as likely to drop

out of school and, in the case of boys, twice as likely to end up in

prison.

Professor David Popenoe, director of the National Marriage Project at

Rutgers University, blames high divorce rates on the south's lower

levels of income and education compared with the wealthy north-east.

Arkansas has the second-highest divorce rate and third-lowest

household income among the 50 states; Massachusetts has the highest

household income and highest university graduation rate.

A study by Barna Research Group suggested religious people were no

less likely to get divorced than atheists and agnostics.

Prof Popenoe cites age as another factor in the success and failure of

marriages.

Southerners, whose conservative society frowns on sex before marriage,

are more likely to marry young. In more liberal parts of the country

people tend to have multiple partners and cohabit before eventually

choosing a spouse.

The trend towards getting married later has helped reduce the

nationwide divorce rate from 4.7 per 1,000 people in 1990 to 4 in

2001. However, the figure still dwarfs the European Union's rate of

1.9.



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