wfn.org | NCCCUSA, AJC File Brief in Church-State Case

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

84NCC7/13/99  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC, AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS FILE BRIEF IN CHURCH-STATE 
CASE

 NEW YORK - Can a court forbid a parent from taking her 
child to a church affiliated with the Universal Fellowship 
of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) and restrict the 
child's attendance to what the court referred to as 
"mainline" churches?

 A Texas district court decision to that effect is now 
on appeal to the Texas Court of Appeals.  The appeal has 
"friend of the court" support from the National Council of 
Churches and the American Jewish Congress.

 The appeal contends that the 78th District Court of 
Wichita County, Texas, violated church-state separation by 
deciding that a child of a marriage ending in divorce could 
attend only a "mainline" church with her mother.  The lower 
court found that the UFMCC, with a particular ministry among 
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, did "not 
fall within the category" of mainline churches.

 In their amicus brief filed in the child custody case 
of "In the Interest of WKG, a Minor Child," the two 
organizations said that "a loosely worded divorce agreement 
has led to an improper judicial intrusion into the sacred 
domain of religious belief," thus requiring reversal.

 A Christian mother and Jewish father divorced, with 
each promising as part of their divorce to provide religious 
training to their daughter.  The mother took her daughter to 
the Metropolitan Community Church at Wichita Falls.  

When the father objected to the mother's choice of 
church, the court found that only "mainline churches would 
be utilized by the parties for the religious training of the 
child the subject of this suit."  The court listed a number 
of mainline Protestant churches such as Methodist, Baptist 
and Episcopalian; the Catholic church, and a "Jewish 
synagogue" but specifically excluded the UFMCC.

-more- 

84NCC7/13/99
CHURCH-STATE NEWS BRIEFS PAGE 3

"For decades, the National Council of Churches has been 
an advocate of both freedom of religion and non-
discrimination," said the Rev. Oliver Thomas, NCC Special 
Counsel for Religious and Civil Liberties.  "There may be 
reasons why a court could order a parent not to take his or 
her child to a particular church, but none appear in the 
record.  

"Moreover," he continued, "the judge's attempt to limit 
religious participation to so-called mainline churches is an 
unconstitutional intrusion into what is essentially an 
ecclesiastical question.  Absent proof that a particular 
religious practice would be harmful to a child, parents 
should be free to attend the church of their choice.  In 
particular, judges should not be permitted to inject their 
theological biases into what does or does not constitute an 
acceptable church.  In this case, the court went so far as 
to construct a list of acceptable churches."

The NCC/AJC brief declares that "the morality of 
homosexual behavior is very much a subject of debate" in the 
United States today, and that parents should make child-
rearing decisions without threat of loss of custody because 
a court agrees or disagrees with their moral views on this 
contentious issue.

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