Follow up on Judge Prohibits Parents from Exposing Child to Paganism

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Friday May 27, 2005 · 5:04 AM PDT

2005/05/27 · 05:04

A followup to my previous diary concerning the order of a judge in Marion County, Indiana prohibiting a divorcing couple from exposing their child to "non-mainstream" religions. The parents were both Wiccans, and the provision in the judge's order concerning religion was unsolicited by the parents but seems to have been inserted by the judge because of a recommendation by the Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau. The original Indianapolis Star article is here.

Kevin Corcoran for the Indianapolis Star has a new article on the decision entitled, Paganism ruling stirs outcry.

There isn't a great deal of new information. The article says that legal experts expect the ruling to be struck down. Hon. Cale Bradford, the trial court judge who made the ruling, can't comment because it's a pending case. The father, Thomas E. Jones, Jr. said he posted to two pagan web sites asking that people not call the judge's office to protest.

A relevant passage from the article:

Before the appeals court would consider constitutional issues of religious freedom, however, it's more likely to fault a decision by one of Bradford's commissioners to include the one-paragraph restriction without showing actual or potential harm to the child, said an Indiana family law attorney.

"This decision should be frightening to people of any faith, because who decides what's mainstream?" said Donna Bays, chairwoman of the Family Law Section of the Indiana State Bar Association. "I have never seen a judge put anything like that in any order involving parties who were in agreement."

The Indianapolis Star weighed in with an editorial that is entitled Judge Goes Too Far on Parents' Religion and says that Judge Bradford "badly overstepped his authority."

It's blatantly unconstitutional for government, including the courts, to forbid parents from sharing their faith with their children. The only exception is in extreme cases when specific practices endanger a child's health. That is not the situation in this case.

A round up of some of the commentary in the blogosphere:

Kemplog

In the Agora -- Be sure to read the comments. Ed Brayton has some excellent commentary.

Indiana Democratic Club

Atrios

Pesky apostrophe
A Stitch in Haste

The Ward Report

Pandagon

Dispatches from the Culture Wars

Indiana Politico

Spin Dry

The story appears to be getting some additional mainstream news coverage:

The AP has a story with mostly the same information:

A court commissioner wrote the unusual order after a routine report by the court's Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau noted that both Jones and his ex-wife are pagans who send their son, Archer, to a Catholic elementary school.

In the order, the parents were "directed to take such steps as are needed to shelter Archer from involvement and observation of these non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." The judge let the wording stand.

There are quotes from Barry Lynnn of Americans United for Separation of Church & State as well as Micah Clark of the American Family Association of Indiana. Both say the case looks like overreaching.

WISH-TV 8 has a quote from Ken Falk of the ICLU and says that Judge Bradford said that he couldn't talk about the case because it's now in the hands of the Court of Appeals. But I still can't find anything on the Court of Appeals docket.

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