Hmm, this is an interesting tidbit from a few weeks ago that seems to have escaped mainstream attention, so I figured I’d pass it along. One wonders how this sort of thing can happen in a country where we’re supposedly guaranteed freedom of (and from, if we so choose) religion under our constitution. Anyway, here’s the story!

Ken Kusmer of the Associated Press (via The StarPress) writes:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - 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…

[Continue reading Divorced Wiccans Fight Judge’s Order]