Blog Jones

One frustration I have with BJU and with my local church is their attitude of constant paranoia about…, well pretty much everything outside of the church. For a great example of this, check out an old book called Saturday Morning Mind Control, which postulates the virtually all kids programing at the time had some sort of occult origin. Besides the entertainment industry, the primary focus of their paranoia is the government.

Normally, that’s a good place for paranoia. I’m a minarchist, so distrust and dislike of the government is second nature to me. But the typical fundamentalist position is not mere distrust, it’s fear.

Preachers are always insisting that the government is trying to take away the freedom of religion, based on the fact that the courts have been enforcing separation of church and state. You should have heard the unadulterated praise for Roy Moore and his “bold defense” of the ten commandments memorial. And don’t even get them started on prayer in public schools. I even heard one preacher invoke Godwin’s Law by accusing the gay and the feminist lobbies of planning to round up Christians in boxcars and ship them off to concentration camps.

You see why that might be frustrating?

But now I’ve heard a story that doesn’t bode well for religious freedom, but that I doubt I’ll ever about hear from the pulpit: Some idiot judge has forbidden a man and his ex-wife from teaching their child their religious beliefs.

Why won’t I hear about this in the pulpit? Because the parents are Wiccans.

This outrageous decision was a part of the couple’s divorce decree, but neither the father nor the mother–both of whom are Wiccans–asked for it. They are both forbidden to expose their child to “non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.” The judge did not define the term.

What was the judge’s justification for making such a ruling? Apparently the boy attends a Catholic school. The judge received a report from the Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, which contained the following quote:

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.

After reading this, the judge apparently decided that he had the right to decide what religion the boy should or should not be taught.

Fortunately, “Getting the judge’s religious restriction lifted should be a slam-dunk,” according to an Indiana University law professor. “That’s blatantly unconstitutional. Obviously, the judge can order them not to expose the child to drugs or other inappropriate conduct, but it sounds like this order was confusing or could be misconstrued.”

But the fact that a judge is so uneducated about the limits of his power that he’d pass such a measure does not bode well. There’s got to be some way to get him out of power; if not, I rest assured that the man will never rise above the position of a divorce court judge, because no legislator will ever be foolish enough to try to advance him to a higher court.

I hope.

(Via Dean’s World)