by Gokumonkey 16 Replies latest social family
These sorts of things are typically never enforced by a judge and most will loathe even putting it in there. The JW parent has freedom of religion as do your kids, baptism is not a legal contract and thus cannot be legally enforced so there is no legal restriction possible.
I disagree.
https://www.canlii.org/en/#search/text=jehovah%20AND%20child%20AND%20baptize
If your daughters had appendicitis would you consider doing an appendectomy yourself? Hopefully you would hire the services of an expert in abdominal surgery!
Then why have you not secured the services of an expert in law -- a divorce attorney with experience in child custody disputes?
Good luck!
I live in New Jersey in the United States
Hi Gokumonkey
Rather than use the very specific 'age 18' - which some might see as being very unflexible - why not just say...
until they reach the 'age of majority' (in the state or country they live) or until their emancipation, which ever is sooner.
.... that would appear to put the 'ball-in-their-court' legally speaking - IMHO it would be fairly difficult to argue against - because they'd be arguing against a principle, rather than an actual physical age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority
I agree with those suggesting that you get legal council. You could even just do a consultation with a lawyer. That is often free. The reason that I say this is that your reasoning doesn't look like it would hold much weight from a legal standpoint. Many parents in other religions baptize their children (to save their souls) when they are infants. You need to lay out the difference in what it means when JWs get baptized, you need to lay it out in every way, and you need to do so in a way that says, "This is what it means in this religion."
Your writing... it needs a basic grammar and spelling check. It is mostly emotional and doesn't make a lot of sense from an outside perspective. The judge is human but they will also be coming from their own background. You have no idea what that is. But, guaranteed they will have no idea how things work within the Jehovah's Witnesses religion.
You would be wise to get a lawyer to cover all your bases, and then write your own heartfelt response to be included. This way, the judge will see that while you are emotional.. your desire for your children is reasonable and not just motivated by your personal feelings about.... whatever. The judge will get to see a balanced perspective and your very personal perspective. Both are important and they should be presented together.
