Having done scads of "investigations" and written 2xscads "reports and recommendations" for a juvenile and domestic relations district court, I can tell you that the sea change in how these matters are decided came about because of the progressive notion that parents who disagree ought to engage in mutual negotiation (arbitration, mediation, est, whatever) and that the courts ought to reserve final decisionmaking for those [allegedly] few cases where the parents simply could not - as opposed to would not - find any sort of middle ground on which to compromise.
These two parents structured the dissolution of their marriage and the way they would handle the legal issue of who is responsible for raising the child to the age of majority by falling headlong into seeing the courts as the final arbiter of personal differences. In other words, if they cannot agree on how to share and play nice together, one of them runs to Mommy who has to decide for them. Mommy, unfortunately, cannot have favorites between these two children or they will complain and since Mommy also has thousands (millions?) of other children who will complain if she shows favoritism between those two because they are afraid she will then show favoritism amongst them as well.
The court clearly, IMHO, skirted the religious issue which was phrased as "Daddy must not really love me because he does not do x,y,z which, according to my [the kid's] religious beliefs, are necessary to be able to go to heaven where we will all be reunited." That issue was posited as causing serious emotional distress for the child.
Not being a christian I am ignorant (and wish to remain so) on the point(s) of just what may prevent one from being admitted to heaven. However, I am willing to guess, based on the existence of more than one "brand" of christian-ism that there are differing opinions on the requirements and prerequisits.
My guess is that the judge was of the mind that this child could benefit from exposure to other thoughts and positions on how one might be admitted to heaven, as well as different tunes and words to be sung whilst jumping rope, acceptable combinations of items to be placed on top of the pizza pie, and the like -- all so that at some time in the future he would not have to have this mommy and this daddy back in court asking him to solve their problems for them and maybe even avoiding having this child come into court later on asking him to solve her own marital disputes. To do that his ruling could only have been in the direction of getting the kid out of the house and mixing it up with other kids on a daily basis.
If you reread the order you may note, as I did on my first reading, that there was little commentary on the child's socialization other than "she enjoys visiting with her father's other daughter" and that she "gets along well" with the kids in the classes she does attend at the public school. No mention of friends, play dates, sleepovers, or the like. As one who "investigated" and wrote reports I am attuned to the absence of reference to such in court orders - it strongly suggests to me that the absence of any reference meant there was an absence of such activity. I could be wrong, but am willing to bet I'm not.
King Solomon was tasked with deciding between two mothers whose baby it was. This judge, on the other hand, was tasked with deciding on how to split the child. There was no way any decision he came up with was going to look as good. But, IMHO, he took the best possible of the only alternatives open to him. Siding with the mother would clearly indicate a judicial preference for her religious views, which he is not supposed to do. Siding with the father is not necessarily a rejection of the mother's religious views, which he is also not supposed to do. It does give the child exposure to alternative views - presuming middle school kids talk much about religion at lunch and during recess - and expands her possibilities for social interaction. All of which are "good" things meaning society in general would not start collecting tar and feathers because he said she ought to "enjoy" those activities more.
stay safe.
skidmark
