Geraldine Morris on the approach to religion in family proceedings
The media love a celebrity divorce, so the recent news that actor and leading member of the Church of Scientology, Tom Cruise, is to divorce for the third time has inevitably attracted a lot of attention and speculation. Reportedly a cause of concern to the third Mrs Cruise, Katie Holmes, is that of their daughter’s religious upbringing within the Church of Scientology. Disagreements on religious upbringing may arise in any family and in this jurisdiction there is a range of potential courses of action available under the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989), although alternative dispute resolution methods, particularly mediation, should always be the first port of call. In law, parents do not have to provide their child with any religious instruction, thus issues arise only where one parent is keen for a child to receive religious instruction or where the parties are of different religions and have strong views.
The starting point is that religious influences are significant in terms of a child’s future welfare and thus are one of the relevant circumstances when applying the principle of
