Parents and Children

• Author: Richard Moon
• Profession: Faculty of Law, University of Windsor
• Pages: 177-185

177

CHA PTER 6

PARENTS AND

CHI LDR EN

A. INTRODUC TION

It is not surprising that some of the most contentious freedom of reli-

gion cases involve the claim of parents to make religiously based deci-

sions concerning their children. In these cases, the parents’ claim to

oversee the spiritual welfare of their children, and to transmit their faith

to their children, is often pitted against their children’s interest in devel-

oping as independent agents, capable of making their own judgments,

including spiritual judgments, or the interest of the larger community

in ensuring the development of children as citizens who are tolerant

and able to contribute to society. In this way the debate about religious

freedom in the family context exposes most starkly the central tension

in the courts’ understanding of religion, as both a personal commitment

and a cultural identity, and of religious freedom as both the right of the

individual to make spiritual choices and the right of religious believers

or communities to be treated with equal respect.

B. PAR ENTS’ R IGHTS

The right of parents to oversee the spiritual life of their children may

simply be part of a more general right of parents to make decisions

about the welfare of their children. It is sometimes argued that parents