huckelberry wrote: ↑Wed Nov 01, 2023 10:05 pm
Res Ipsa, your no response is clear and reasonable but I think the quote about permission is quite odd. It makes an exception to requiring permission but it appears quite unclear when such an exception might exist. I do not know what sort of legal basis might exist beyond perhaps a parent always has a right to deny the interview. In that case I would expect a church position to be that the child's church and priesthood participation is voluntary and depends upon finishing the interview. If you choose no interview the child's participation would be limited. I imagine that would be a safe legal position for the church to take.
I think the issue is the distinction between being a biological parent and having what we call parental rights. Some biological parents voluntarily or involuntarily lose all parental rights. In the example of a bio parent who has been stripped of parental rights because they abused the child, that bio parent has no legal right to determine anything with respect to the child. In that case, that parent would have "no legal basis" as the exception states.
With respect to "guardian," the word does have a popular usage that doesn't necessarily mean legal guardianship. If I say that I'm my nephew's guardian because he was sent by his parents to live with me for whatever reason, I might describe myself as a "guardian." But if I haven't been appointed as a legal guardian, I would fall within the exception because I have no legal basis to make decisions about my nephew's religious upbringing.
Beyond that, the modern trend in divorce law is away from all or nothing "custody." Here in Washington, certain areas of decision making, including religious upbringing, are designated as joint or are assigned to one parent or the other. If I divorced and, whether voluntarily or not, the decree gave decision making over religious upbringing to the children's mother, I would fall into the exception because I would have no legal basis for having any say in the children's religious upbringing.
The same can be true of a guardianship. Suppose I were a sole parent and had a long-term illness that left me unable to provide day to day care of my children. If she agreed, I could appoint my sister as guardian of my children, but I could reserve decision making over the children's religious upbringing to myself. If I did not include that area of decision making in the guardianship, then my sister would fall within the exception even though she qualifies as the children's legal guardian.
The exception is needed to make sure the church gets permission only from people who have the legal right to give it.
