“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” 

-Isaiah 61:10

The mainstream media has spent the past week extensively covering new US House Speaker Mike Johnson. Congressman Johnson was relatively unknown in the national political scene before his rise to the House Speakership Consequently, Far-Left media outlets have tried their best to attack Johnson for his socially Conservative, Evangelical Christian faith.

One of the silver linings in the Leftist media’s coverage of Speaker Johnson’s background relates to his marriage–more specifically, his “Covenant Marriage”. That’s right, Congressman Johnson and his wife Kelly were married under Louisiana’s Covenant marriage laws. In fact, Mike Johnson helped draft Louisiana’s original Covenant marriage legislation back in the late 1990s.

For those who are unfamiliar, here is what Louisiana’s law defines as a “Covenant Marriage”:

A covenant marriage is a marriage entered into by one male and one female who understand and agree that the marriage between them is a lifelong relationship. Parties to a covenant marriage have received counseling emphasizing the nature and purposes of marriage and the responsibilities thereto. Only when there has been a complete and total breach of the marital covenant commitment may the non-breaching party seek a declaration that the marriage is no longer legally recognized.

Simply stated, a “Covenant Marriage” gets rid of the “no-fault divorce” option in a marriage. According to State law, couples can only divorce (after receiving marriage counseling) if one of the following conditions is proven in a court of law: physical/drug abuse, abandonment/separation, adultery, or a felony. “Irreconcilable differences” do not fly under Covenant marriages.

Before the 1960s, no US state allowed for no-fault divorce–which means that abuse, abandonment, or adultery had to be proven in a court of law before a divorce was granted. Then in 1969, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan signed legislation making California the first state to legalize no-fault divorce. Reagan later admitted that supporting no-fault divorce was “one of the worst mistakes of his political career.”

Fast forward to today, and you will find that nearly half of American marriages end in divorce. For both the United States and the state of Louisiana, no-fault divorce has been an unmitigated disaster. According to pretty much all available research, children living without their married parents perform much worse academically, behaviorally, and mentally than children who do. In short, children generally suffer under divorce.

At this point, is there anything Louisiana can do push back against divorce culture? The solution: promoting Covenant Marriages in Louisiana.

Only about 1% of marriages in Louisiana fall under the Covenant Marriage designation, so  there’s plenty of room to grow for Covenant Marriages in our state. Indeed, there are plenty of ways to promote Covenant Marriage. One direct way is to provide state income tax credits to couples who choose to enter a Covenant Marriage.

Personally, I was not even aware of the concept of Covenant Marriage until fairly recently. So, I know that Louisiana Churches, educational institutions, and municipal government could do a better job of advertising this option at the very least. I can assure you that my future wife and I will enter a Covenant Marriage when we’re married.

Of course, even if Louisianans mass-adopted the Covenant Marriage option, not all of Louisiana’s social ills would disappear at once. Nevertheless, promoting Covenant Marriages on a wide scale would greatly benefit Louisiana children, married couples, and the future of our state.

The Lord Jesus Christ gave us the gift of marriage as a gift, and it is high time that our state government’s policy toward marriage reflects this reality.

Louisiana’s coming revival is not just about passing better economic policies or improving infrastructure. The coming “Louisiana First” era includes both a political component as well as a religious-cultural one, and I believe that Congressman Mike Johnson’s actions represent both parts.

God Bless the State of Louisiana!

Nathan Koenig is a is a frequent contributor to RVIVR.com, a national conservative political site affiliated with The Hayride. Follow his writing on Twitter @ConservativeTin and on Instagram @tincanconservative. Email him here: thechristianmajority@gmail.com