When a divorce happens and custody drama ensues, it isn't terribly unusual for friction over issues like differing religious beliefs to result in judicial orders that one parent or both parents not expose the child to a particular viewpoint or activity. This is not one of those cases. Both Thomas E. Jones Jr. and his now-ex-wife Tammie U. Bristol practice Wicca. Neither parent had any concerns about their child being exposed to their religion.

And yet Marion Conuty, Indiana Superior Court chief judge Cale J. Bradford has taken it upon himself to prohibit both parents from exposing their son to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals" in their divorce decree. The judge's order does not define what constitutes "non-mainstream religious beliefs," but presumably he meant Wicca, given the context of the case. Both the boy's parents are protesting the order.

The judge's excuse for the order is that 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 boy attends a local Catholic school. Mr. Jones argues that he attended a Catholic school as a non-Christian as well.

Jones is receiving help from the Indiana Civil Liberties Union and has brought his case to the Indiana Court of Appeals, complaining "This was done without either of us requesting it and at the judge's whim." Indianapolis attorney Alisa G. Cohen said, "When they read the order to me, I said, 'You've got to be kidding.' Didn't the judge get the memo that it's not up to him what constitutes a valid religion?"

---Nick

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