Christian Right as Civil Right: Covenant Marriage and a Kinder, Gentler, Moral Conservatism

Feld's article from 2002 begins by stating his belief that the Christian Right movement is fighting a losing battle, and he goes on to explain how their only significant recent success was in the idea of "Covenant Marriages," which exist as an alternate option to regular marriage that has more restrictions placed on it. These marriages as of 2002 existed in 3 states.

I am very curious if Feld would still maintain his argument after our most recent election. I say this because despite their loss in all referendums that intended to place further restrictions on abortion, the Christian Right did succeed in prohibiting gay marriage in one form or another in fout out of four states. Now, while these decisions may well be overturned by the Supreme Court, for the time being the Christian Right has struck a decisive victory and seems to ahead of the liberals once again.

A Reconsideration of the Effects of No-Fault Divorce on Divorce Rates

Glenn's brief article here contends that no-fault divorce laws cannot be proven to increase divorce rates based on the research presented by Nakonezny, Shull, and Rodgers. Their research simply looked at national divorce rates and their relation to the rise in no-fault divorce laws.

Glenn's dissention here raises a point that sociologists must be very aware of when they conduct research based on national trends. That point is that in this type of research the researcher will likely find exactly the answer they are looking for. Nakonezny, Shull, and Rodgers failed to consider the fact that this is hardly a scientific experiment, because the nation is subject to an infinite number of other factors, each of which could have more or less to do with the divorce rates than no-fault laws. Glenn didn't stop at making this point though, he went further to actually show a blatant flaw in their research based on when the individual states adopted no-fault laws in relation to their divorce rates.