No-fault divorce should be ended and fault grounds restored to divorce proceedings, according to Dr. Allan Carlson, President of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society (http://www.profam.org).  In a lecture delivered in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, entitled "Marriage on Trial: Why We Must Privilege and Burden the Traditional Marriage Bond," Dr. Carlson outlined trends in the deterioration of marriage and offered several policies recommendations.  Repealing no-fault was his first recommendation.  Dr. Carlson said it was imperative that parties in divorce proceedings be required to take legal resposibility for their actions.

 

In response to Dr. Carlson's lecture, Dr. Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, described the Bush administration's proposal for the federal government to encourage "Healthy Marriages".  Dr. Horn heads the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), which will oversee the Healthy Marriages program under the auspices of the child support enforcement system, which it also administers.  Dr. Horn said it is appropriate for the government to be involved in marriage counseling in part because the government already regulates the private lives of noncustodial parents in matters of visitation and child support.  In his remarks, Dr. Horn made no reference to Dr. Carlson's call to reinstate fault grounds in divorce. 

 

The lecture was sponsored by the Family Research Council (FRC).  High-profile conservative political groups like FRC have been relunctant to take on issues of divorce, custody, child support, and parental rights.  But this may be changing.  By sponsoring Dr. Carlson, FRC (where Dr. Carlson currently holds a fellowship) may be indicating a broadening of its approach to protecting the family to include the threat from unregulated divorce.

 

Dr. Carlson is not a conventional conservative.  He is a highly respected scholar known for avoiding doctrinaire positions.  Like the English controversialist G.K. Chesterton, whom he quoted in today's lecture, Dr. Carlson attributes much of the deterioration of the family to the effects of industrial capitalism.  His recent prominence in Washington could be influential in shifting the terms of debate on family policy toward areas that have previously been avoided by both major political parties.

 

Those wishing to comment on Dr. Carlson's lecture can go to: http://www.frc.org/contactfrc.cfm or call 1-202-393-2100.