Court Opinion

ID: 9792680
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:34:18.069944+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:44.634400
License: Public Domain

*357BAKES, Justice Pro Tem.,
dissenting.
While I agree with much of what the majority says about the necessity for the courts to “maintain neutrality as to the religion factor in child custody litigation,” I believe that the trial court in this case did not base its decision upon the so-called “religion factor,” but upon its finding that the defendant was best able to provide the children with the training and character traits necessary for them to become well adjusted adults.
As the majority notes, the trial judge acknowledged that the law required the judge to “maintain an attitude of strict impartiality between religions.” While the trial court did discuss at length the various religious beliefs and activities of the parties, the trial court nevertheless based its decision upon the “important principles of life that prepare them [the children] to be normal, productive and successful adult members of our society.” The trial court stated those principles to be “responsibility, courtesy, selflessness, honesty, punctuality, industry, dependability, morality, self-reliance and independence, patience, etc.” The trial court found, after weighing the totality of the evidence, that the defendant would provide a greater quantity and quality of such training, and then concluded that the boys, by living with the defendant, “will eventually be much better citizens and more normal, productive and successful adults.”
The majority acknowledges that there is evidence in the record to sustain those findings, and that those reasons are adequate to sustain the trial court’s decision. The majority nevertheless reverses the trial court and remands for further consideration because the trial court’s opinion spent too much time discussing the religious beliefs and activities of the parties. It is unfortunate and detrimental to the children to reverse the trial court’s judgment, which is adequately supported by the record, merely because he was too descriptive of the religious activities and interests of the two parents.
I would affirm the magistrate court’s decision, based upon its finding that the defendant is best able to teach the children “responsibility, courtesy, honesty, punctuality, industry, dependability, self-reliance and independence,” and that the “boys will eventually be much better citizens and more normal, productive and successful adults” if the primary custody is with the defendant. Those findings are adequately supported by evidence in the record.