Item from the Smart Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics Collection
Monday, 30-Aug-99

Communities look at strategies for saving marriages

By PHIL ANDERSON The Capital-Journal

Clergy and lay people met Saturday in Topeka to learn about a plan that
leaders say has helped drop the divorce rate by up to 35 percent in 110
cities nationwide.

Saturday's Kansas Community Marriage Summit, the first such statewide
event in the nation, was at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 3625 S.W.
Wanamaker.

The meeting attracted a crowd of about 70 people from various churches in
Topeka, Overland Park, Lawrence, Manhattan and Kansas City, Kan.

Among the speakers were Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and syndicated
columnist Mike McManus and his wife, Harriet, who founded the Marriage
Savers program in the 1980s.

Brownback said lowering the nation's divorce rate can't be done by
legislation. Rather, he said, it will take the efforts of individual
citizens who are dedicated to making a difference in their congregations
and communities.

"It's hard to overstate the importance of marriage," Brownback said.
"Marriage is the cornerstone of the family and it's a bedrock in
civilization."

He added he would like to see marriage re-established nationally as "an
honor covenant, a commitment."

Brownback issued a challenge for Kansas to be the first state to cut its
divorce rate in half, and to do so by the year 2010.

In 1998, he said, the state had 20,878 marriages and 10,691 divorces,
which amounted to roughly one divorce for every two marriages.

Brownback called marriage the "fundamental building block for family
values." He added houses of worship need to combine efforts to help
preserve the institution of marriage in their communities.

Brownback acknowledged there were "difficult marriage situations," such
as those where abuse is present. In such cases, divorce may be a
necessary decision.

"I think everyone understands that," he said. "But there are other
situations where divorces occur for reasons that aren't that compelling."

Brownback also expressed concern about the nation's marriage rates, which
have declined by about 40 percent over the past 20 years while
cohabitation by unmarried couples has risen by about 1,000 percent.

The McManuses exhorted ministers and lay people in the audience to get
serious about saving marriages in their own congregations by becoming
active in the Marriage Savers program.

At the heart of Marriage Savers is a mentoring program through which
married couples receive training. After they are trained, they use their
experience to help other couples who are going through stages of
courtship and marriage.

Among the goals of Marriage Savers are: to help couples avoid a bad
marriage before it starts; to strengthen existing marriages; to save
troubled marriages; to help separated couples to reconcile; and to help
stepfamilies be successful.

Congregations that agree to become active in the Marriage Savers program
work together through community marriage policies, designed to lower
divorce rates in the community.

Churches have been the impetus behind community marriage policies in most
cities. However, McManus said, the program also has been embraced by
members of the Jewish and Islamic faiths in some areas.

"This is not a program of the Religious Right," McManus said. "This is a
program of the religious middle. We can make this a bridging issue in any
community."

McManus said the program works, and he has statistics to back up his
claim.

At Fourth Presbyterian Church of Bethesda, Md., which he and his wife
attend, only six of 150 marriages have ended in separation or divorce
since the program has been in place there.

In 1986, Modesto, Calif., became the first city to implement a community
marriage policy. The city's divorce rate has dropped 30 percent since
then.

Most impressive, McManus says, is the 35 percent drop in divorces in the
Kansas City, Kan.-Overland Park areas from 1995 to 1997, since a
community marriage policy was adopted by 40 congregations in that area.
It is the largest decline in any Marriage Savers area to date.

During the same time, McManus added, divorces shot up across the state
line in Kansas City, Mo.

Following Saturday morning's session, several pastors and lay leaders
from Topeka said they were ready to begin implementing a community
marriage policy for the capital city.


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