## Facts

- A dissolution judgment awarded the mother sole custody of the minor child and granted the father visitation; the judgment contained no restriction on religious activities during visitation.
- The court later entered a more detailed visitation schedule, including alternating weekends.
- During visitation for several years, the father took the child to his church; the mother attended a different Christian denomination with the child.
- The mother moved to limit visitation by prohibiting the father from taking the child to any church or teaching any religion other than the mother’s, asserting her statutory authority as custodial parent to direct religious upbringing.
- At an evidentiary hearing, the mother testified the child was “confused” by attending both churches but offered no evidence of psychological, emotional, or physical harm, or any substantial threat of harm.
- The father testified both faiths were Christian; no evidence showed harmful practices or a concrete doctrinal conflict affecting the child.

## Issues

1. Whether a custodial parent’s statutory authority to determine a child’s religious upbringing permits a court, without proof of harm or a substantial threat of harm, to bar the noncustodial parent from taking the child to the noncustodial parent’s church and providing religious instruction during visitation.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the denial of the mother’s motion to restrict the father’s religious activities with the child during visitation.
- The court held that visitation-based limits on a parent’s religious practices require evidence that the challenged religious activity harms the child or poses a substantial threat of harm.
- The mother’s showing of alleged “confusion,” without evidence of harm, was insufficient to justify a restriction.

## Legal Principles

- A court may restrict a parent’s religious activities with a child during visitation only upon a clear showing of actual harm to the child or a substantial threat of harm.
- A custodial parent’s statutory decision-making authority over a child’s religious upbringing is not absolute and does not, by itself, authorize judicial orders controlling the noncustodial parent’s religious exposure of the child during visitation.
- Because visitation restrictions affecting religious practice involve state action, courts must limit intervention to circumstances where protection of the child from harm justifies the intrusion.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the father’s ability to take the child to his church during visitation because the mother failed to prove that the father’s religious activities caused, or substantially threatened, harm to the child, and the custodial parent’s statutory authority did not eliminate the harm requirement.


In re Marriage of Minix, 344 Ill. App. 3d 801, 801 N.E.2d 1201 (Ill. App. Ct. 4th Dist. 2003)