Evangelicals confront divorce
Cambridge scholar David Instone-Brewer writes about the unusual level of support among Evangelicals for (twice) divorced GOP candidate Rudolph Guliani. Dr. Instone-Brewer writes that this is probably in part attributable to divorce rates among Evangelicals mirroring those in the population at large. However, current Biblical scholarship among Evangelicals is causing many to confront the notion that Jesus' proscription of divorce (Mt 19:3), while not as sweeping as Catholic Tradition teaches, would clearly prohibit "no-fault" divorce.
The article is written from a Protestant Evangelical point of view, and so it does not address the Sacramental character of marriage. However, the idea discussed at the end of the piece of "covenant marriage" is a close approximation:
Some leaders advocate a "covenant marriage" in which spouses agree not to divorce unless there is abuse, a felony conviction or adultery. Conservative Christian Mike Huckabee (former Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful) calls this "a positive pre-nup," and James Dobson of Focus on the Family promotes it as a way to oppose no-fault divorces.
This would be very similar to the Catholic Church's teaching that divorce must be "for cause." (This teaching says nothing to suggest that the original marriage was not a valid Sacrament. It assumes that it was, and that therefore even a justifiable divorce would not allow the aggrieved spouse to remarry, since the couple is still sacramentally, if not legally, married).
Such a "pre-nup" would restore the contractual nature of legal marriage. No longer would spouses be able to divorce because they had "grown apart" or felt "unfulfilled." Sounds like the first idea for a pre-nup that I can get behind.