Religious Parents Who Divorce
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
This chapter draws upon divorce pleadings and other records to show how indications of religion, or disaffiliation, that appear in parenting agreements and orders affect the course of the divorce proceedings and any legal activities over the five years following the divorce filing. Some of the apparent findings are normative, but most are merely descriptive and some may be correlative rather than caused by the indicated concern about religion. While parenting plans are accepted by courts only when they are in the best interests of the child, at least in theory, the child’s independent religious needs were never mentioned in the files analyzed for this chapter. Instead the parents’ religious practices and affiliation drove the court’s understanding of what the couple could achieve for their children following dissolution. The data is consistent with more religious parents trying to make the best of what they understand is not ideal for their children.
Recommended Citation
Brinig, Margaret F., "Religious Parents Who Divorce" (2018). Book Chapters. 29.
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/book_chapters/29
Publication Information
in The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law 234 (Robin Fretwell Wilson ed., 2018).