By Maria Padhila
You know the traditional Tarot drawing on The Devil card? It depicts a man and a woman chained to a pedestal on which the big, evil goaty guy himself perches. It’s odd that Christians would want to put us into such a picture, but that’s what’s happening. The latest moves toward government control of our lives and loves come from the trendy move by several Republicans to limit the freedom to end a marriage.
Elimination of no-fault divorce, imposition of waiting periods, demanding “proof” of problems: just as with contraception, is this really a battle we’d ever thought we’d be fighting all over again?
And just as control over reproduction could be taken, the power to end a personal relationship could be legislated away.
Legislators seem to have chosen this from a menu of sure-fire click bait election issues. A column from Scott Keyes of ThinkProgress, at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, gives the lowdown; it’s worth reading the whole thing.
For years, social conservatives have been fighting to prevent certain people from getting married. But they’re waging a parallel battle, too: Trying to keep married couples together.
In cooperation with the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage, socially conservative politicians have been quietly trying to make it harder for couples to get divorced. In recent years, lawmakers in more than a dozen states have introduced bills imposing longer waiting periods before a divorce is granted, mandating counseling courses or limiting the reasons a couple can formally split. States such as Arizona, Louisiana and Utah have already passed such laws, while others such as Oklahoma and Alabama are moving to do so.