Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 30, 2009

Three years ago, Arizona resident Richard Franco and his wife of thirteen years filed for divorce.

Although Franco is an active Mormon, he agreed that the children ? a son, now 14, and a ten-year-old daughter -- would be raised in the Catholic religion.

Until recently Franco took the children with him to church during the weekends he had custody. However, an Arizona judge, in a decision upheld by the state supreme court, ruled that the children?s ?only religious training shall be in the Catholic faith,? and they are not to attend any other church.

The relative merits of either church aside, by what authority does a judge presume to assign a religion to these children? If this is permissible following a divorce, why couldn?t the same question be adjudicated while the couple is still married?

Even in broken marriages, parents retain both rights and duties courts must not usurp.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.