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CNN Live Today

Something Called Marriage Movement Now Getting Some Federal Attention

Aired April 19, 2002 - 12:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Something called the marriage movement, which started on the state level, is now getting some federal attention. The Bush administration is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to encourage couples to marry. Supporters say the investment pays off.

But as CNN's Kathy Slobogin reports, not everyone is in love with the plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an April wedding in Oklahoma, a state that has a lot riding on marriage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And pledge my life and love to you.

SLOBOGIN: Oklahoma has the second-highest divorce rate in the country. State officials say, in half the counties, divorce petitions outnumber marriage licenses. So the governor has launched a marriage initiative. Why a marriage initiative?

FRANK KEATING, GOVERNOR, OKLAHOMA: Strictly for the purpose of lifting this state up economically.

SLOBOGIN: Governor Frank Keating has put his state at the forefront of the marriage movement, vowing to cut the state's divorce rate by a third in 10 years.

Marriage is so personal and intimate thing. Should it be government's business to promote marriage?

KEATING: If the marriage doesn't work out, guess what? A judge that you've never met in your life, you don't know that person from Adam, determines where your paycheck goes and where do the kids live. If that's not government being intrusive, I don't know what government could do any worse.

SLOBOGIN: The idea behind the marriage movement is that marriage is an antidote to poverty. The poverty rate for single mothers is five times that of married couples with children.

(on camera): Promoting weddings may make politicians feel good, but a number of critics are saying the marriage movement is a simplistic fix that won't necessarily lift people out of poverty. Being unmarried, they say, is usually a symptom of poverty, not the cause.

DORIAN SOLOT, ALTERNATIVES TO MARRIAGE PROJECT: Oklahoma really has it backwards. It's true that divorce causes poverty in some cases, but what's even more true is that poverty causes divorce. Poor people are less likely to get married and are less likely to stay married.

SLOBOGIN: But Oklahoma is betting on marriage. Governor Keating has set aside $10 million in welfare money to promote marriage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me and him, we hardly ever talk.

UNIDENTIFIED: Today, what we're trying to do is to approach a new way to be heard.

SLOBOGIN: Some of that money has gone to training volunteers around the state to run marriage workshops, available free to any couple, married or thinking about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can feel that Faye is trying to push more on me than I can handle. It may not be real, it may not be accurate, but that's the way I feel.

SLOBOGIN: Keating has also corralled 800 ministers around the state into signing a marriage covenant. That means they'll only marry couples who go through premarital counseling first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I'm not one of the best listeners around, especially when you get emotion running through it.

SLOBOGIN: Heather and Chris plan to marry in May.

JEFF STEWART, REVEREND, CROSSINGS COMMUNITY CHURCH: And we have had a lot of couples that decide, even without my initiating it, not to get married. They just decided that -- they agree to part company.

SLOBOGIN: Governor Keating believes supporting marriage with tax dollars pays off. He says taxpayers pay the price when marriages fall apart, in welfare, broken homes and damaged children.

KEATING: We think to take a little drop at the front end to avoid a flood at the tail end makes good sense.

SLOBOGIN: Keating admits the marriage initiative is an experiment. But with one in two marriages ending in divorce, he says we can't afford not to try it.

Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Oklahoma City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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