What Happens When Interfaith Couples With Children Divorce?
Did you know that roughly 49% of US couples live with a partner who has different religious beliefs? Married or not, having a child with a partner who doesn’t share your religion can be a complicated topic. Which faith will you teach your child? Can there be an acceptable compromise for both parents?
As we grow and change throughout life, some individuals can become more religious and others follow their self-identified faith less. On the flip side, there are some people who disregard their original beliefs completely and adopt a new faith later in life. All in all, these situations can cause relationships to fracture — which is a problem when there are children involved.
So, how does religion play into custody agreements? It’s hard to say, and each case will be dependent upon your individual circumstances. So let’s dive into some case examples and explore how an Arkansas attorney can help you.
Raising A Child With Interfaith Parents
Interfaith refers to individuals who do not share the same religious beliefs. And while parents can typically come to an open minded agreement during their relationship, the situation can change. Depending upon how contentious the separation was, your ex may push towards raising your child in their faith during child custody agreements.
Co-parents have the opportunity to expose their children to both religions and allow their kids to make their own decisions. But, unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen, especially when the relationship ends in unfriendly circumstances.
While Arkansas does not necessarily factor religion into custody cases, there are various scenarios where a judge had to consider religious beliefs when making their custody ruling decision. So, when you and your co-parent cannot agree, the judge will have to decide which circumstance will serve the best interests of the child.
How Religion Can Affect Custody
While every religion has their own beliefs and practices, there are a few that can be detrimental to an individual’s physical or mental health. As an adult, you can make these choices of your own free will, but in interfaith co-parenting situations, both parents need to be taken into consideration.
Established Religious Community
Children experiencing the divorce or separation of their parents have life hard — they may need to move, change school districts, give up family pets, and adapt to life without their parents together. Family law judges consider all of these factors when making a decision on parental custody agreements.
While religion is not typically considered, a parent fighting for custody could make the argument that their child was raised in a religious community and taking them away from the community would negatively affect them.
Restrictive Religious Practices
Here, we will provide a handful of examples where religion could affect a child’s well-being, however, similar situations can arise in any interfaith co-parenting relationships. Whether you relate to these examples or not, they highlight just how complicated interfaith parenting can be:
A specific sect of Mormonism practices polygamy, which means a man can take more than one woman as his wife. An individual leaving a relationship may decide to leave their religion and polygamy, whereas the other partner still embraces it — creating tension during child custody agreements. In this scenario, a judge may consider the difference between the parents’ religious beliefs and try to make the best choice for the child (or children).
Additionally, many courtrooms have seen cases regarding minor children within the Jehovah’s Witness faith. In this religion, believers do not accept any type of blood transfusion, even in the matter of life or death. However, when a young Jehovah’s Witness from Georgia was severely injured in a car accident, his primary custodian refused necessary blood transfusions due to their religious beliefs. The hospital staff immediately filed a petition for the minor, and were granted permission to perform the life-saving transfusion.
In a similar court case, the state of New York made an opposing ruling — a parent’s right to consent to treatment plans cannot be overruled by medical professionals' opinion, even if this decision could negatively affect their children.
In The Midst Of A Heated Custody Battle? Call Hickey & Hull
If you are worried about how your ex-partner will raise your children, it’s time to contact a lawyer. You have no time to waste, and you’ll need someone well-versed in family law to help you navigate this situation.
Give our Northwest Arkansas office a call at (479) 802-6560 or use our website to schedule your initial consultation today. Let our legal professionals help you establish a custody agreement that meets your co-parenting needs.