A Re-focus for the Children’s Religious Liberty Debate?

by mariefailinger
Published on March 3, 2010 in Marie Failinger. 4 Comments Tags: , .

Having just finished an unrelated article on adolescent girls, I thought about the continuing debate over the religious liberty rights of children.  The authorities in this area tell us that young adolescent girls aren’t “rational maximizers.”  For many girls, decisions often are governed, in the words of Mary Pipher and Martha Straus, by the “magical thinking of childhood” and a “reliant and defiant” relationship with their parents.  Many are concrete, present-oriented and largely egocentric and peer-directed thinkers.   If true, this would seem not to bode well for the law’s competence to determine when children can make religious decisions of moment for themselves, such as whether they should seek or refuse medical treatment, whether they should follow community norms separating members by gender, etc.    Should courts be re-directing their energies when debates about the religious rights of children vs. their parents or the state come up?

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