This seems like some heavy subject material to bring up this morning, but this landed in my inbox and I couldn’t help but bring it up for discussion. Recently, I talked about the proposed marriage license legislation in Nebraska. The legislation proposes that for every couple who goes through 10 hours of marriage education then they would only need to pay $30 for a marriage license and if they don’t take the class, then they’ll need to pay $100 for their marriage license. I thought the idea was worth exploring as a model for its effect on marriage. I still think it’s an idea worth exploring and discussing.
So What’s Texas Up To?
Apparently, so does Texas. There are five bills currently being proposed in the Texas Legislature with regard to marriage. Those bills are:
- HB180 – Couples applying to be married or whom are already married may designate their marriage a “covenant” marriage – this means that they are declaring that their marriage is for life and it would make obtaining a divorce more difficult. Call me quirky, but I thought the vow til death do us part was a declaration that a couple intends their marriage for life
- HB1704 – This house bill proposes that the marriage waiting period will be extended from 72 hours to 120 hours in order to give couples time to really consider the gravity of their intent to marry – my engagement was about 10 months, so I guess that’s not enough time, since you apply for the license pretty close to your set wedding date
- HB2684 – This bill encourages couples who want to file for divorce to attend 10 hours of crisis counseling including classes on conflict management and forgiveness skills – there’s no immediate details on how they would enforce this measure
- SB-583 – This bill proposes extending the 2 month waiting period for a no fault divorce here in Texas to 180 day or six month waiting period, adjusting that time to three months if the couple takes that 10 hours of crisis counseling
- HB2685 – This last bill proposes waiving the $30 marriage license fee and the 72 hour marriage waiting period for couples who undergo 10 hours of premarital instruction course and a secondary bill would allocate federal money the state receives for these marriage courses; there was originally a proposal attached to this that would make the fee $100 for marriage licenses if you didn’t take the courses (similar to Nebraska’s proposed legislation), but that was already removed because opponents labeled it a marriage tax
Where do I start? The goal of many of the men proposing these bills seems to be making marriage harder to get into and harder to get out of. Republican Representative Warren Chisum stated:
Divorce is what keeps many of our people in poverty. I am trying to do something to raise people out of poverty.
The Marriage Counselor of Texas
Democrats in the State House in opposition to these measures, include Representative Garnet Coleman from Houston. He stated:
It appears that government is growing under this scenario to become the marriage counselor to Texas. A lot of people don’t want government interfering in the family.
It’s like a flip-flop; in it’s own way. While the fate of all these bills is uncertain at the moment, Republicans proposed them all. Generally speaking, the agenda of these social conservatives appears to be legislating away the ease of entering and exiting marriage in order to increase the value that individuals place on this institution.
I do not think you can legislate value. It’s like legislating thought or belief. Same-sex unions may be illegal in some states, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who think that it’s still fine – legislating the issue doesn’t change people’s minds on either side of the fence. At the same time, I still think that it’s worth exploring whether or not marriage education classes would benefit marriages over all. Legislation may not be the way to achieve this answer. So let me throw this out there, do we have any readers who took marriage education prior to getting married? Do you think that it helped or didn’t? I’m also wondering how many studies are ongoing with regard to this? So now that I have these questions, I’ll definitely be doing some digging.
Finally, I like to look at all sides of the issue. There are apparently a small number of states that provide ‘covenant’ marriages and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of data out there regarding whether those ‘covenants’ have made any impact or not. So I’d like to ask readers if they have designated their marriage a ‘covenant’ marriage and what, if any impact that this has had on their marriage?
Do you think we’re going to get into this some more? Oh, I do!
Related Articles:
Marriage in the News: Class or Fee, which Will it Be?
Marriage in the News: Seriously?
Marriage in the News: Texas Law Creates a Feud