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Judge’s Order May Presage More Abuses Against Christians 11/13/2003 Mother told to avoid ‘homophobic’ teaching.
A Christian legal expert warns that a Colorado judge’s order to a Christian mother to avoid exposing her 8-year-old daughter to “homophobic” religious teaching could lead to more abuses.
A Colorado court on April, 28, 2003, told Dr. Cheryl Clark to desist from sharing her faith’s teaching on homosexuality with her daughter, and also awarded shared parenting to Clark’s former lesbian partner, Dr. Elsey McLeod. McLeod has no biological relationship with the child.
“We have to stop this case before other courts extend similar awards in future cases,” Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver told Concerned Women for America’s (CWA’s) Culture & Family Institute. Staver, who filed an amicus brief on October 27, called it “a clash between the Christian worldview and the homosexual worldview. One of them is going to win. If the homosexuals win, then Christians will be silenced.”
“This case is the extreme of what I’ve seen percolating in other courts,” he added. “Judges have told parties in prior custody cases to not speak ill of the other parent, but this is the first time a judge has actually restricted someone’s parental and religious rights.”
The materials that Justice John Coughlin of the District Court of the City and County of Denver deemed “homophobic” were from Focus on the Family and Promise Keepers, two Christian ministries devoted to strengthening families.
“The order restricting the religious instruction of the daughter violates the natural mother’s constitutional rights to direct the religious training of her children,” Staver said. “The order forbids the mother from exposing her daughter to anything ‘homophobic.’ It takes no stretch of the imagination to envision a judge finding the mother in contempt of court for merely teaching her daughter about the Biblical truths on homosexuality.”
Clark, whose attorney, James Rouse, appealed the order on June 11, left the relationship with McLeod and became a Christian. McLeod remains a practicing lesbian.
The Colorado Court of Appeals is likely to hear the case, Cheryl Ann Clark vs. Elsey Maxwell McLeod, probably after the new year, Rouse told Culture & Family Institute.
As bad as the ban on “homophobic” material is, Rouse said, “The bigger issue, as far as my client is concerned, is that her former partner is being treated like a divorcing spouse even though they aren’t and can’t be married in the state of Colorado. The trial court has effectively skipped the ‘gay marriage’ issue and gone to ‘gay divorce.’”
Rouse noted that the ruling clearly violates the ruling in the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case, Troxel vs. Granville, which established that the state cannot intrude into the parent-child relationship except in cases of abuse.
CWA’s LaRue: Judge needs retraining
CWA Chief Counsel Jan LaRue said Coughlin’s ruling ignores the law and common sense. “The judge’s order should result in a scathing reversal by the appellate court and a requirement to attend a remedial course in constitutional law,” she said.
Staver said the award of custody to a third party was very troubling.
“The decision stands in direct conflict with precedent throughout the country that denies visitation to a third party based solely on that person’s prior sexual relationship with the legal parent,” he said.
Rouse said that the judge’s reliance on the concept of a “psychological parent” has implications for family law, and “could affect other couples, such as live-in, heterosexual couples who aren’t married.”
“This case should be a wake-up call to the public that homosexual activists are pushing an agenda that extends into the church and its teachings and that agenda is being facilitated by activist judges,” Staver added. “Radical homosexuals are trying to suppress what we believe.”
“Only the tip of the iceberg”
“It is not a stretch of the imagination to realize that if this case is left unchallenged, Dr. Clark could be found in contempt of court for simply allowing her daughter to sit next to her in church if the preacher discusses sexual purity,” he said.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg. The outcome of this case will be felt far beyond custody issues,” Staver continued. “This case will have a bearing on the freedom of Christian schools to teach the Biblical view of homosexuality and receive vouchers. Many issues surrounding the Boy Scouts are rooted in these principles. What pastors can say in the pulpit is at stake here, and even whether certain Biblical passages are seen as ‘hate speech’ as we have seen in Canada.”
Staver encourages the public to be alert to similar cases in their local courts and to get more involved in efforts to thwart judicial activism.
Citizens should weigh in on judicial appointments, and hold their elected representatives responsible for restraining or impeaching judges who legislate from the bench.
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