## Facts

- In a dissolution proceeding, the mother sought custody of five minor daughters.
- The mother belonged to a Christian sect emphasizing strict discipline and separation from nonmembers; evidence described use of spanking, isolation, and other harsh discipline techniques.
- The father, a former member of the sect, testified that the sect discouraged association with “nonbelievers” and that the mother’s practices harmed family relationships.
- The trial court interviewed the children in chambers and received a court-appointed psychiatrist’s report recommending custody with the mother if certain religion-related problems were addressed.
- The trial court found the mother provided proper care; the children were well-adjusted and had strong bonds with both parents, but the mother followed sect mandates “to the detriment of other relationships.”
- The trial court awarded custody of the oldest daughter to the mother and custody of the four younger daughters to the father, and entered a property distribution order.
- The mother appealed, arguing the custody and property rulings improperly treated her religious affiliation and practices as determinative.

## Issues

1. Whether a trial court may treat a parent’s religious beliefs or religion-related conduct as a determinative custody factor absent evidence of actual or reasonably foreseeable harm to the children.
2. Whether the property division should be set aside and reconsidered because the dissolution decree may have been influenced by the same improper focus on religion.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the custody award and remanded for retrial.
- The court held the trial court improperly used aspects of the mother’s religious conduct as a decisive custody factor without sufficient evidence that the conduct adversely affected, or posed a clear risk to, the children’s welfare.
- The appellate court also reversed and remanded the property division for reconsideration because the custody and property determinations were intertwined and could have been influenced by the same erroneous considerations.

## Legal Principles

- A parent’s religious beliefs or practices may be considered in custody decisions only to the extent they demonstrably affect the child’s physical or mental health or otherwise bear on the child’s welfare.
- A court may not penalize or reward a parent in custody determinations based on religious affiliation or doctrinal disagreement.
- Restrictions or adverse custody consequences tied to religion-related conduct require evidence of actual harm to the child or a reasonably foreseeable, substantial threat to the child’s well-being.
- Custody determinations must rest on the conduct’s secular effect on the child, not on judicial disapproval of religious doctrine.

## Conclusion

The court held that, absent evidence of harm to the children, the mother’s religion could not be treated as the controlling reason to place four daughters with the father; it therefore reversed and remanded for retrial of custody and property division.


In re Marriage of Hadeen, 27 Wn. App. 566, 619 P.2d 374 (Wash. Ct. App. 1980)