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U will not beleive this, not just Fathers losing, READ THIS!

Started by MYSONSDAD, May 26, 2005, 08:16:29 PM

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MYSONSDAD

Divorced Wiccans fight divorce order to shield son from their
beliefs
>
> By KEN KUSMER
> ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> INDIANAPOLIS, May 26 — A Wiccan activist and his ex-wife are
> challenging a court's order that they must protect their 9-year-old
> son from what it calls their ''non-mainstream religious beliefs and
> rituals.''
>
>  The Indiana Civil Liberties Union has appealed the stipulation
> written into the couple's divorce order, saying it is
> unconstitutionally vague because it does not define mainstream
> religion.
>        Thomas Jones, a Wiccan activist who has coordinated Pagan
> Pride Day in Indianapolis for six years, said he and his ex-wife,
> Tammy Bristol, were stunned by the order. Neither parent has taken
> their son to any Wiccan rituals since it was issued, he said.
>        ''We both had an instant resolve to challenge it. We could
not
> accept it,'' Jones said Thursday. ''I'm afraid I'll lose my son if I
> let him around when I practice my religion.''
>        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.
>        The order has been criticized by various religious and
> advocacy groups.
>        Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based
> Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said judges
> cannot substitute their religious judgment for that of parents in
> regard to the upbringing of children.
>        ''This is an absurd result, because in the eyes of the law
> being a pagan should be no different from being a Presbyterian,'' he
> said.
>        Wiccans contend their religion is becoming more mainstream.
> The parents' appeal says there were about 1 million pagans worldwide
> in 2002, more than the numbers who practice Sikhism, Taoism and
other
> established religions in the United States.
>        Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans,
and
> say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the
> cycle of the seasons.
>        ''There continues to be misunderstanding and prejudice and
> discrimination, not only against Wicca but against any religion that
> is not centered on monotheism,'' said the Rev. Elena Fox, high
> priestess and senior minister of Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church
> and pagan resource center near Madison, Wis.
>        The head of a conservative Christian group also sided with
the
> Wiccans.
>        ''The parents have the right to raise their child in that
> faith, just as I have the right to raise my child in the Christian
> faith,'' said Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family
> Association of Indiana.
>
>
>        On the Net:
>        Circle Sanctuary: //www.circlesanctuary.org
>

"Children learn what they live"