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Spread it far and wide, folks.
Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs
Father appeals order in divorce decree that prevents couple from exposing son to Wicca.
And the conservatives complain about activist judges?
Here's the contact information for the court. Please let them know how you feel about this gross assault on the First Amendment.
The Office of the Court Administrator
City-County Building
200 E. Washington Street, T-1221
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Office (317) 327-4747
Fax (317) 327-3844
Father appeals order in divorce decree that prevents couple from exposing son to Wicca.
An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."
The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.
Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.
Bradford refused to remove the provision after the 9-year-old boy's outraged parents, Thomas E. Jones Jr. and his ex-wife, Tammie U. Bristol, protested last fall.
Through a court spokeswoman, Bradford said Wednesday he could not discuss the pending legal dispute.
The parents' Wiccan beliefs came to Bradford's attention in a confidential report prepared by the Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, which provides recommendations to the court on child custody and visitation rights. Jones' son attends a local Catholic school.
"There is a discrepancy between Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones' lifestyle and the belief system adhered to by the parochial school. . . . Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones display little insight into the confusion these divergent belief systems will have upon (the boy) as he ages," the bureau said in its report.
And the conservatives complain about activist judges?
Here's the contact information for the court. Please let them know how you feel about this gross assault on the First Amendment.
The Office of the Court Administrator
City-County Building
200 E. Washington Street, T-1221
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Office (317) 327-4747
Fax (317) 327-3844
no subject
They've decided to send him to a religious school. Catholic, to be precise. I don't know any nine-year-olds with the mental maturity to handle being taught two different and contradictory religious systems. Surely the sensible thing to do is to put him in a secular school and teach him one religion, if that's what they want to do?
no subject
The outrage here is a judge has forbidden the parents from teaching their faith to their child because it isn't "mainstream" (read: Christian.) This is horrendous violation of the civil rights of the parents.
no subject
Assuming what you quoted was accurate, the judge was apparently ruling that teaching the kid one religion at home and a totally different one at school was not in the kid's best interests. One assumes that the same judgement would have been rendered had the parents been Buddists...
Interfaith?
Let's see, my mother is an ethnic Jew, my father claimed to be Buddhist (but went to the Christian church twice a year, guess when?), my great aunts were all Christian Scientists, the Baha'i husband's step-family is Mormon, .....
Re: Interfaith?
no subject
This *does* happen as in some areas the parochial schools are the best choice for academic reasons. That is, the students learn better there.
So if the school accepted him knowing he isn't christian, much less Catholic, I haver to assume they have rules about that sort of thing.
two different religions