CAN A PARENT BE PREVENTED FROM INVOLVING HIS OR HER CHILD IN THE PARENTS RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES ABSENT A CLEAR SHOWING OF HARM TO THE CHILD?
The answer is NO. A parent will not be enjoined from such conduct absent a clear showing of harm to the child. And any antenuptial provisions to contrary are unenforceable. “[T]he speculative possibility of mere disquietude, disorientation, or confusion arising from exposure to contradictory religions would be a patently insufficient emotional harm to justify encroachment by the government upon constitutional parental and religious rights of parents, even in the context of divorce…. [E]motional distress to a child arising from a parental dispute regarding a child’s religious upbringing may depend more on the manner in which the dispute is conducted, than the theological aspects of the dispute itself. (In re Marriage of Weiss, supra, 42 Cal.App.4th at p 115.) And, the court said that membership in Jehovah’s Witnesses religion does not render a parent unfit for custody – In re Marriage of Urband (1977) 68 Cal.App.3d 796, 137 Cal.Rptr.
