Dad takes daughter to church, violates court order.

[believe09]

BM-you are heading in the direction I arrived at when I first read the article.

 

[Cypros]

I don't think baptism is that important unless the person decides to have it done for themselves. The real problem here is noted by the father:

Reyes said Judge Edward Jordan is the former head of the Decalogue Society, the Jewish Bar.

The judge needs to step away from this case. It is clear he is not capable of being unbiased! Just crazy.

And a Christian judge would be less biased???

 

[Cypros]

I admit the Islam would be a little more difficult for me because there's a possibility that one of the parents could be sending/taking the child to a place that practices or encourages radical Islam. Admittedly the parent could be taking the child to a "Christian" church that advocates bombing abortion clinics, too, I guess. But I probably wouldn't have a problem with either parent exposing this child to their respective religions as long as the child wasn't showing discomfort or confusion about it AND it wasn't altering her body in some way or doing something permanent to her that she could not back out of later when she is old enough to make her own decision. Her father just taking her to church seems rather innocent and not something that is going to permanently scar her in some way, as far as I can tell.

As you note, the possibility of being exposed to radical or extreme Christianity is just as possible as radical Islam. In fact, more possible because there are a lot more radical Christians here in the US than there are radical Muslims.

Ideally, both parents will be required to temper there religious influences and to be respectful of the other's and the child will be allowed to make her own decision about her own beliefs at an appropriate age.

 

[Cubby]

It was a little odd the judge ordered the father not to expose the daughter to ANY religion other than Judaism. I took that to mean ALL not just Christianity, so he couldn't even discuss or answer a question in a simple age appropriate manner regarding any other faith.

I don't know that the judge was biased, but I think the appearance that he may be would be enough cause for concern for him to recuse himself from the case, and possibly have a non Jewish non Christian judge hear the case... no one could cry foul then.

JMO

 

[Cubby]

Jump the gun? :waitasec:

Jump the gun....presume family courts word is final and there was no crossing boundaries or ruling inappropriately....presume this would not be over turned if appealed.... presume one or the other parent is really being way too over the top or not..... could be a number of them.

I wrote the above before I had enough coffee this am.

 

[Boyz_Mum]

I'm going with my gut (and my gut is not always correct) but I'm guessing the judge may have put forth the ruling of not exposing this child to other religions, not because of bias, but because of what the child has been exposed to up until this point. I'm inclined to believe that the mother addressed the issue directly with her lawyer when they decided to divorce or when papers were drafted.

Maybe southcitymom knows more as to when 'religion' comes into play within the realm of divorce in the legal arena. I only know one couple where 'religion' came into play and the children were reared in the mother's religion and they did hash it out in the divorce agreement. One of the children converted as a teen and it really wasn't and hasn't been a 'hot topic' amongst the extended families.

I looked up some articles on Judaism and Christianity and thought this was interesting: http://www.gotquestions.org/difference-christianity-judaism.html and another regarding Judaism and Roman Catholicism: http://www.angelfire.com/ky/dodone/JRC.html.

Overall, my opinion means very little and all of this is my opinion. I do feel that the father could have respected the rules of the seperation and delayed baptism. He waited this long to do it and didn't sneak the child out it her infancy to have her baptized, so why did he do it now?