Posted on by Mark Movsesian

UK Court: Child of Divorced Parents May Convert from Judaism to Christianity Despite Mother’s Objections

What a wrenching — and in its implications for how civil courts understand minority religious traditions, fascinating — case. An English judge has ruled that a 10-year old Jewish girl may be baptized over the objections of her mother, who wishes the girl to remain Jewish. The girl’s father and mother divorced two years ago. Both parents were Jewish, but after the divorce the father converted and joined the Church of England. The parents shared custody of the girl, and, on the weekends he had custody, the father took the girl with him to church. The girl eventually told him she wished to be baptized; unsure of her commitment, he put her off. The girl then approached a minister on her own and also raised the issue with her mother, who quickly filed a court application to stop the process.

In a judgment made public last week, the judge decided that the girl’s interests were best served by allowing baptism to go forward. As in any such case, the judge considered many factors, including the fact that the father and mother had not been observant Jews during the marriage; that since the divorce the mother had neither taken the  girl to synagogue nor arranged for Jewish religious instruction; that the father had not, as the mother and all four grandparents alleged, “brainwashed” the girl; and that baptism, which in the Anglican tradition is only the start of one’s relationship to the church, would not prevent the girl from changing her mind later.

Reading the judgment, one senses how painful this situation has been for all concerned and how hard the judge tried to do the right thing. I don’t wish to intellectualize matters inappropriately, but I was particularly struck by the judge’s reasoning with respect to the girl’s religious upbringing. It seems to me the judge understood Judaism in very Christian terms – or perhaps in very liberal, Western terms, which, in this case, turns out be the same thing. For the Read more

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Church of England Rejects Proposal to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

In a report today, the Church of England rejected as “flawed, conceptually and legally,” the Cameron government’s proposal to legalize same-sex marriage. Conceptually, the report argues, the proposal would “alter the intrinsic nature” of marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Notwithstanding the “genuine mutuality and fidelity” often found in same-sex relationships, the report states, the C of E felt bound to resist the proposal both for reasons of Christian faith and the Church’s “commitment, as the established church in England, to the common good of all society.”

The report argues that the government’s proposal, which purports to apply only to civil marriage, raises serious legal questions. The distinction between “civil” and “religious” marriage, an innovation in English law, is likely to be untenable in the long run, the report predicts. English law grants any resident, regardless of his or her religious affiliation, the right to marry in the local C of E parish (a great illustration, by the way, of Grace Davie’s point about religion’s public role in Europe). Once Parliament defines marriage to include same-sex marriages, could a parish church deny this right to same-sex couples? The C of E is doubtful. Even if Parliament were to allow C of E parishes to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, the ECtHR might not. Under existing ECtHR caselaw, once a state legalizes same-sex marriages, those marriages are covered by article 12 of the European Convention, which grants a right to marry, and article 14, the Convention’s anti-discrimination provision. Under these articles, a state church could justify a distinction between “civil” and “religious” same-sex marriages only by “very weighty reasons.” The report is skeptical that the ECtHR would ultimately allow the distinction to stand.

Critics immediately characterized the report as alarmist. Maybe it is. Given the recent vote of the Danish parliament requiring the Church of Denmark to perform same-sex marriages, though, it’s hard to completely dismiss the report’s concerns. It’s possible that, in time, either Parliament or the ECtHR would require the C of E to solemnize same-sex marriages, whatever the C of E’s religious objections. Of course, the problem may lie in the concept of the state church itself; the autonomy of a private church on religious questions would likely be more secure, particularly in light of the ECtHR’s recent Fernandez Martinez decision. But the Brits decided all that under the Tudors.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian · 2 Comments

Throne and Altar

Judging by church attendance and the percentage of people who say religion plays an important role in their lives, Europe is a secular place. And yet, as sociologists of religion have observed, Christianity continues to have a major cultural and legal role. Nowhere is this clearer than in Britain, where the Monarch is the “Supreme Governor” of the state church. Britain today commemorated the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II with a Thanksgiving service in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Prime Minister read from the New Testament and the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered a sermon praising the Queen for manifesting the values of St. Paul himself:

Dr Rowan Williams paid tribute to the Queen’s selfless devotion, saying: “I don’t think it’s at all fanciful to say that, in all her public engagements, our Queen has shown a quality of joy in the happiness of others; she has responded with just the generosity St Paul speaks of in showing honour to countless local communities and individuals of every background and class and race.”

One would think such ceremonies, to borrow the phrase from American law, send a message of exclusion and disparagement that religious minorities resent, but that is apparently not the case, or at least not typically. It’s not the American way of doing things, but, as Joseph Weiler has written, “there is something inspiring and optimistic by the fact that even though the Queen is the Titular Head of the Church of England, the many Catholics, Muslims and Jews, not to mention the majority of atheists and agnostics, can genuinely consider her as ‘their Queen’ too.”

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Anglican and Catholic Bishops Oppose UK Government’s Plan to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

Lots of law-and-religion news out of Britain this weekend. Here’s another story: in Catholic parishes in Britain today, worshipers heard a pastoral letter from Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the Catholic primate, warning about the dangers of legalizing same-sex marriage. The letter follows similar statements by Anglican bishops, including Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Archbishop of York John Sentamu; Williams is quoted as saying that legalization would force “unwanted change on the rest of the nation.” The bishops’ statements follow reports that the coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron is considering introducing legislation to legalize  same-sex marriage in Britain. It’s not clear from the reports whether the legislation would  authorize only civil same-sex marriages or actually alter the articles of the Church of England — adopted by act of Parliament — to authorize religious same-sex marriages as well. I assume the former, but I don’t know enough about Parliament’s role in setting doctrine in the Church of England.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Virginia Trial Court Rules for Episcopal Diocese in Church Property Dispute

In the latest turn in a long-running litigation, a Virginia trial court ruled last night that breakaway parishes must vacate church property, including the landmark Falls Church in suburban Washington, DC (left), and return possession to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. In 2005, several Virginia parishes voted to leave the Diocese over a dispute, among other things, about the ordination of openly gay clergy. These parishes affiliated themselves with a new denomination, the Anglican Church of North America, but continued to occupy their existing church buildings, to which they claimed a right under Virginia law. When the Diocese sued,  state courts initially sided with the breakaway parishes. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled, however, that those courts had relied on an unconstitutional statute and remanded the case. Yesterday’s decision, on remand, favors the Diocese. The breakaway parishes say that they are reviewing the latest decision. In recent months, courts in New York and Georgia also have ruled against breakaway congregations in church property disputes involving the Catholic, Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches.