Parents and Children

AuthorRichard Moon
ProfessionFaculty of Law, University of Windsor
Pages177-185
177
CHAPTER 6
PARENTS AND
CHI LDR EN
A. INTRODUCTION
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. PARENTS’ RIGHTS
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

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