Spread it far and wide, folks.

[gridlore]

Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs
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

Comments

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

I would allege, with a far greater degree of proof based on sociological studies, that deliberately placing a young child in Catholic school amounts to emotional abuse.

As the joke has it, a young Jewish boy is in lots of trouble and is kicked out of both secular and Jewish schools. They enroll him as a last resort in Catholic school. He straightens out and gets top grades. A year or so later, the parents ask why.

"Well, the first thing I saw when I walked in was some Jewish guy nailed to a cross. So I knew they were serious."

The reality is much uglier. School-sanctioned harassment is only the beginning. Not to mention that one could easily allege a RICO conspiracy to violate boys' civil rights by sodomizing them.

But I feel certain that Mr. Conservative Judge simply sees a chance to pick on a religion he doesn't like. Men like that shouldn't be in positions of authority.

Getting off the subject, somewhat....

[kshandra]

I went voluntarily. None of us - not me, not murphymom, nobody - realized how much discrimination I would face. Not because I wasn't Catholic (I was, at least in theory), but because I wasn't as affluent as my classmates. (I attended two years on a full scholarship. They restructured the financial aid program at the end of my sophomore year in such a way that I was unable to remain.) It was subtle, but it was there.

Well, most of it was subtle. The day I walked into the bathroom in the 400 wing and found the "Kirsten Nelson Gossip Column," complete with ugly caricature labeled with things like "Funky shoes (from her funky mother)" - not so much. Nothing quite like being the freshman all the other frosh pick on, lemmetellya.