A mom in Utah has been banned from talking about her religion with her children. The mom and dad are in a nasty custody battle for their children. Mom is currently only allowed supervised visits with the children. The father has sole custody.
They are both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mom is possibly joining a sect of Mormons, the Apostolic United Brethren, which allows polygamy.
The mom is saying the ruling is unconstitutional and clearly anti-religious. However, the Commissioner in charge of the case said it is not about religion, but about conduct.
“I tried to make it very, very clear in my rulings that my problem is not with Ms. Brown’s religion. I don’t care if her conduct is as a result of believing in the UAB (sic),” Commissioner Kim Luhn said. “I care that her conduct is creating chaos for these children and in essence, rising to the level of emotional abuse. I want focus here on conduct.”
He modified the ban to only include talk of religion or politics during the holidays. He also added that the mother only engage in “age appropriate” conversations with the children. The father testified that “She [the mom] would say things about the court case in front of the children. She would talk about what was going on with the court case, as far as her version of the truth.”
There is obviously so much about this case we don’t know: the kids’ ages, what mom is really saying, what dad is saying, etc. However, if someone saw something that could be causing the children emotional abuse, then things need to change. It’s obvious that the mother has raised red flags in the past because she’s only allowed to have supervised visits.
Do you think the dad was right to ask for a ban on religious talk?
