A Maryville woman who went to court on Aug. 14 for a child custody hearing says she was persecuted because of her religious beliefs at the hands of the Blount County judicial system.
According to Jo Anne White, what was supposed to be a standard child custody hearing turned into an almost hourlong “Bible study” in the courtroom in spite of the repeated protests of her attorney, Kevin W. Shepherd.
After a detailed discussion of her religious beliefs — documented in court reporter transcripts obtained by The Daily Times — and a brief recess to chambers, Blount County Circuit Court Judge W. Dale Young awarded temporary custody of White’s two children to her ex-husband. The custody will be reviewed again in Circuit Court on Dec. 11.
Read about it here.
[From me]
What happened to separation of church and state?
What do you think?
Filed under: divorce, family, government's role
Horrible, just horrible, that judge should be censored.
Thank goodness there’s yet to be a final hearing and I hope she can get a different judge to preside.
You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat.
That judge’s curiosity might kill his career.
Seventh-Day Adventists have always been strong separationists. They make sure that their own are taken care of. It’s terrible that this woman and her religion was picked at in a government court room.
I know this lady and what happened to her. If you read the transcripts you realize this was a tactic that the opponents attorney was using. He walked out thinking he had this zipped up. He has since withdrawn out of the political race for this judge’s seat and the judge is already under judicial review for several cases. This has hit the local news channels and the most popular talk show host in the area is an Adventist. This has ended the attorney’s political career and the Adventist church has legal people involved. I don’t think these guys knew who they were dealing with when they opened this can of worms.