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In fact, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics, four of the five states with the highest resident divorce rates in the country are in the Deep South, where families pray together but, apparently, can't stay together.

Metropolitan states like Massachusetts and New York, supposed havens of marital dysfunction, actually have comparatively low divorce rates. Instead, marriage is failing in what should be its natural habitat, the land of fire, brimstone and the sky-blue tuxedo.

At the top of the Big D list, with the highest resident divorce rates in the U.S., are Arkansas and Oklahoma. The governors of both, mortified by the unholy distinction, have vowed to tackle the problem head-on. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has declared "a marital emergency," pledging to cut his state's divorce rate in half within 10 years. His neighbor to the west, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, has created the "Oklahoma Marriage Policy" with the goal to cut his state's rate by a third in the same period.

Bold words and impressive goals -- but hardly surprising coming from a pair of Republicans. Family values are, after all, the coin of the conservative realm. And who is going to complain? Reducing divorce puts lawyers out of work, cuts court caseloads and makes a really great sound bite. Heck, even the Devil's own Democrats could get on the bandwagon.

Except that this bandwagon has limited seating.

Keating and Huckabee, pure as their intentions may seem, have responded to their states' marital emergencies by championing the pet projects of campaign contributors while ignoring legitimate social science and viable solutions to divorce, not to mention the needs of their most troubled constituents. And while they refer to the predicament as a crisis, they have used the situation as little more than an opportunity to engage in standard-issue moralistic posturing.

They've even tried to (gasp!) add more government to people's private lives with Covenant Marriage Bills that would revive the concept of "fault" in divorce and make adultery an actionable cause in filing for divorce.

In declaring war on divorce, the Arkansas and Oklahoma governors have ignored all the primary, and soundly researched, causes of marital strife. They have not asked insurance companies to cover marriage counseling for parents, nor have they found ways to give stretched-thin families more child-care options. They have not created no-cost marriage workshops or financial workshops in economically-depressed areas, despite the fact that the two states are at the bottom of the list for U.S. median incomes and financial trouble is a primary cause of divorce in this country.

Instead, Keating and Huckabee have chosen to "promote and honor marriage."  Perhaps they've forgotten that this is not the same thing as reducing divorce. Maybe they just hope no one will notice.

Unfortunately, the divorce issue isn't the only state problem that Keating and Huckabee have attempted to solve through a decidedly indirect route. To them, teen pregnancy isn't an issue -- but reducing out-of-wedlock births is. Instead of educating teens in the depressing outcomes for children born to under-educated, unemployed and often single young mothers in disadvantaged areas, the Oklahoma Marriage Project Web site has called for premarital chastity and "character-building" curricula in schools.

The message for the troubled teenage mom in this approach is clear -- and ludicrous: She can solve all her problems by walking down the aisle with the dropout Piggly-Wiggly bag boy who knocked her up.

Marriage as a morally correct panacea for all social and personal ills is the philosophical crux of the marriage movement. The idea here is that if Connie and Dwayne would just tie the knot, they'd raise median incomes, improve life expectancies and virtually eliminate child abuse -- even if Connie is on crystal meth and Dwayne resolves conflicts with a baseball bat.  (According to its governor, Oklahoma has a "methamphetamine epidemic.")

The ideal of universal marriage is so seductive that the governors can't wait to roll up their sleeves and get their states' most intractable social problems married off. (Don't forget the federal cash incentives offered to states for reducing abortion and births out of wedlock, along with big welfare reform points for reducing the number of single mothers on the dole.) And how do they plan to do it?

By putting young lovers through a really tough questionnaire and making them keep their hands to themselves.

Next page | Sex is definitely on the agenda