meet our Governor, who thinks he's our marriage counselor
I would love someone to explain to me how in the hell a state government has any business creating a "marriage program." WTF?!?!?!
Brownback program promotes marriage
By Tim Carpenter
THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
The vanguard of people shaping Gov. Sam Brownback's new state government program promoting marriage aren’t shy about speaking their mind.
David Blankenhorn, founder of the Institute for American Values in New York, said polygamy was more in line with core values than same-sex marriage. At least polygamists, he said, were faithful to the concept of a union between man and woman.
Consultant Maggie Gallagher, while talking of a religious component of the pro-marriage movement, said Catholics and Christians had to be the "visible light" for people failing to grasp intricacies of the institution.
Wade Horn, who redefined President George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, preached a gospel that encouraged poor women to marry their way out of poverty.
Marriage Savers creator Mike McManus said clergy members typically did a lousy job preparing couples for marriage and secular therapists were more likely to increase divorce among spouses in crisis.
This foursome was among 20 people who met behind closed doors in Topeka to share marriage program ideas with Brownback and executives at the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. During the April encounter, the governor urged invitees to think in terms of "Hail Mary" approaches to boosting marriage rates and slashing divorce rates in Kansas.
The content of the discussions at an SRS office and governor's mansion remains confidential, but a Kansas Open Records Act request revealed names of the players and showed the session cost taxpayers $13,000. Some of those invited formed alliances with Brownback during his days in Congress. Others raised themselves to prominence through work at advocacy organizations or by marketing their books, CDs, tutorials and advice on marriage.
Organizations represented included the Heritage Foundation, Institute for American Values, Georgia Family Council, National Center for Fathering, Stronger Families, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, Marriage Savers, Kansas Healthy Marriage Institute, and National Center for African American Marriages and Parenting.
A handful of higher education institutions contributed, but only one, the Christian liberal arts Friends University, was from Kansas. Others were Brigham Young University, University of Minnesota, George Mason University and University of Texas.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat who voted against confirmation of Brownback's choice of SRS secretary, said he was intrigued by the governor's simultaneous talk about removing government from the lives of the average Kansan and creating a state marriage program drenched in faith-based advocacy.
"I learned a long time ago, actually in Sunday school, you should have a separation of church and state," Hensley said. "These kinds of measures are overreaching into personal relationships."
Resumes, public speeches, books, articles, television appearances and interviews offer insight into views on marriage of the participants brought to the table by Brownback, a Topeka Republican made governor in January.
Blankenhorn, of the Institute for American Values, raised eyebrows in a California federal court three years ago while offering testimony on same-sex marriage. He said polygamy didn't violate the "rule of two people."
"Even in instances of a man engaging in polygamous marriage, each marriage is separate," Blankenhorn said.
McManus said state government should get more involved in marriage initiatives because the void created by others was large.
"Most churches don't do much preparation," said the operator of Marriage Savers. "What's Rotary Club doing for marriages? What are schools doing?"
Clergy members in each Kansas county should sign and enforce a "community marriage policy" to prohibit church weddings unless the couple completed a 200-item, premarital inventory and met several times with a mentor couple trained by the church, McManus said.
In his follow-up letter to Brownback obtained by The Topeka Capital-Journal, McManus said Kansas should prohibit no-fault divorce unless there was proof of physical abuse or adultery. A Kansas law ought to be passed, he said, allowing judges to select a "responsible spouse," which would always be the person opposed to divorce. The statute would allow the responsible adult to receive up to 66 percent of child visitation and 100 percent of family assets in the divorce.
Horn, who resigned from HHS to take a job with Deloitte Consulting, departed the Bush administration amid reports of cronyism in awarding federal grants to the National Fatherhood Initiative he founded. According to OMB Watch, NFI received a five-year, no-bid contract for $12 million.
Helen Alvare, a member of the law faculty at George Mason who also was invited to Topeka, said she admired Sarah Palin's devotion to family and professional achievement. In 2008, Alvare said Palin was "what a lot of women aspire to be on their best day."
California writer Christelyn Karazin, who had a child out of wedlock before marrying, believed so strongly in the power of a man and woman to raise children she organized an event called "No Wedding, No Womb."
It was primarily a call to the black community to take action against the birth of children without the "physical, financial and emotional protection" of a father and mother, she said.
Joyce Webb, who works with Catholic Charities' Kansas Healthy Marriage Institute, recommended SRS divert $1 million from federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to pay for a new marriage program. TANF money is earmarked for families living in poverty.
SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki, responsible for implementing the governor's marriage initiative, said thousands of Kansans who divorce each year lacked the skills and knowledge to form sustainable relationships. Brownback wants SRS to help fill that information gap, he said.
"We are really starting from ground zero," Siedlecki said. "The governor wants us to create a national model."
Siedlecki said there would be no room in the state's program for gays and lesbians interested in marriage or parenting. Use of public tax dollars can be justified because divided families are costly to government and harmful to children, he said.
He said faith-based and secular organizations would both have a role in the program.
Siedlecki hired Richard Marks, the Jacksonville, Fla., director of the Marriage for Life, to join SRS and be involved in the initiative. Marks launched the Center for Family Ministry at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville and co-authored a guide to Christian marriages.
"This is not about putting a Bible in everybody's house or forcing people to go to church," said Siedlecki, who worked in faith-based programs at the U.S. Department of Justice. "Our goal is to give more choice to people. If somebody wants a secular provider with no faith element, God bless them."
Brownback program promotes marriage
By Tim Carpenter
THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
The vanguard of people shaping Gov. Sam Brownback's new state government program promoting marriage aren’t shy about speaking their mind.
David Blankenhorn, founder of the Institute for American Values in New York, said polygamy was more in line with core values than same-sex marriage. At least polygamists, he said, were faithful to the concept of a union between man and woman.
Consultant Maggie Gallagher, while talking of a religious component of the pro-marriage movement, said Catholics and Christians had to be the "visible light" for people failing to grasp intricacies of the institution.
Wade Horn, who redefined President George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, preached a gospel that encouraged poor women to marry their way out of poverty.
Marriage Savers creator Mike McManus said clergy members typically did a lousy job preparing couples for marriage and secular therapists were more likely to increase divorce among spouses in crisis.
This foursome was among 20 people who met behind closed doors in Topeka to share marriage program ideas with Brownback and executives at the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. During the April encounter, the governor urged invitees to think in terms of "Hail Mary" approaches to boosting marriage rates and slashing divorce rates in Kansas.
The content of the discussions at an SRS office and governor's mansion remains confidential, but a Kansas Open Records Act request revealed names of the players and showed the session cost taxpayers $13,000. Some of those invited formed alliances with Brownback during his days in Congress. Others raised themselves to prominence through work at advocacy organizations or by marketing their books, CDs, tutorials and advice on marriage.
Organizations represented included the Heritage Foundation, Institute for American Values, Georgia Family Council, National Center for Fathering, Stronger Families, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, Marriage Savers, Kansas Healthy Marriage Institute, and National Center for African American Marriages and Parenting.
A handful of higher education institutions contributed, but only one, the Christian liberal arts Friends University, was from Kansas. Others were Brigham Young University, University of Minnesota, George Mason University and University of Texas.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat who voted against confirmation of Brownback's choice of SRS secretary, said he was intrigued by the governor's simultaneous talk about removing government from the lives of the average Kansan and creating a state marriage program drenched in faith-based advocacy.
"I learned a long time ago, actually in Sunday school, you should have a separation of church and state," Hensley said. "These kinds of measures are overreaching into personal relationships."
Resumes, public speeches, books, articles, television appearances and interviews offer insight into views on marriage of the participants brought to the table by Brownback, a Topeka Republican made governor in January.
Blankenhorn, of the Institute for American Values, raised eyebrows in a California federal court three years ago while offering testimony on same-sex marriage. He said polygamy didn't violate the "rule of two people."
"Even in instances of a man engaging in polygamous marriage, each marriage is separate," Blankenhorn said.
McManus said state government should get more involved in marriage initiatives because the void created by others was large.
"Most churches don't do much preparation," said the operator of Marriage Savers. "What's Rotary Club doing for marriages? What are schools doing?"
Clergy members in each Kansas county should sign and enforce a "community marriage policy" to prohibit church weddings unless the couple completed a 200-item, premarital inventory and met several times with a mentor couple trained by the church, McManus said.
In his follow-up letter to Brownback obtained by The Topeka Capital-Journal, McManus said Kansas should prohibit no-fault divorce unless there was proof of physical abuse or adultery. A Kansas law ought to be passed, he said, allowing judges to select a "responsible spouse," which would always be the person opposed to divorce. The statute would allow the responsible adult to receive up to 66 percent of child visitation and 100 percent of family assets in the divorce.
Horn, who resigned from HHS to take a job with Deloitte Consulting, departed the Bush administration amid reports of cronyism in awarding federal grants to the National Fatherhood Initiative he founded. According to OMB Watch, NFI received a five-year, no-bid contract for $12 million.
Helen Alvare, a member of the law faculty at George Mason who also was invited to Topeka, said she admired Sarah Palin's devotion to family and professional achievement. In 2008, Alvare said Palin was "what a lot of women aspire to be on their best day."
California writer Christelyn Karazin, who had a child out of wedlock before marrying, believed so strongly in the power of a man and woman to raise children she organized an event called "No Wedding, No Womb."
It was primarily a call to the black community to take action against the birth of children without the "physical, financial and emotional protection" of a father and mother, she said.
Joyce Webb, who works with Catholic Charities' Kansas Healthy Marriage Institute, recommended SRS divert $1 million from federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to pay for a new marriage program. TANF money is earmarked for families living in poverty.
SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki, responsible for implementing the governor's marriage initiative, said thousands of Kansans who divorce each year lacked the skills and knowledge to form sustainable relationships. Brownback wants SRS to help fill that information gap, he said.
"We are really starting from ground zero," Siedlecki said. "The governor wants us to create a national model."
Siedlecki said there would be no room in the state's program for gays and lesbians interested in marriage or parenting. Use of public tax dollars can be justified because divided families are costly to government and harmful to children, he said.
He said faith-based and secular organizations would both have a role in the program.
Siedlecki hired Richard Marks, the Jacksonville, Fla., director of the Marriage for Life, to join SRS and be involved in the initiative. Marks launched the Center for Family Ministry at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville and co-authored a guide to Christian marriages.
"This is not about putting a Bible in everybody's house or forcing people to go to church," said Siedlecki, who worked in faith-based programs at the U.S. Department of Justice. "Our goal is to give more choice to people. If somebody wants a secular provider with no faith element, God bless them."