• In North Carolina, a child's religion can be taken into account during custody disputes.child image by Vaida from Fotolia.com
  
  Child custody cases are court cases that try to determine the rights and responsibilities that a parent or guardian should have regarding a child's welfare, authority, education and religion. The question of religion most often is raised when parents of different faiths divorce. If the parents don't agree about whose religion the children will follow, a religious custody battle can ensue. According to the Court of Appeals of North Carolina in the case MacLagan v. Klein, courts can consider the rights of children to practice a religion.
  
  

North Carolina Standard

• According to the Court of Appeals of North Carolina, when a court is called in to resolve a custody dispute between separated or divorced parents who disagree about their children's religious upbringing, the court must balance the rights of parents against the best interests of the child. Courts must protect each individual parent's constitutional right to the free exercise of religion and the parent's right to raise her child as she wishes. However, courts must also protect the best interests of the child. If one parent complains that the other parent's religious activities are not in the best interests of the child, courts must hear all the evidence and decide whether it is necessary to encroach upon the other parent's rights by limiting religious activities.
  
  

Child's Religious Background

• Two factors that courts in North Carolina can consider in custody disputes are the religious background and religious beliefs of the child. For example, if a child has self-identified with a certain faith since he was a baby, and has only been exposed to one faith for his entire life, the court can rule that exposure to a new religion might interfere with his religious identity and negatively affect his emotional well-being. Based on considerations such as the child's self-identification and religious history, the court can give one parent or guardian sole control over the child's religious education. If the child is too young to self-identify based on the court's evaluation, the child's religious background will hold less weight in a custody battle. As of 2010, North Carolina courts have not decided how to tackle a case in which one parent is very religious and the other is not religious.
  
  

Federal Constitutional Rights

• While parents have the right to practice their own religion, children also have some individual rights that are federally protected. In the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines School District, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that minors have constitutional rights. However, while minors are awarded the right to practice their own religion, their right to practice their own religion might depend on their age and level of understanding. As of August 2010, the Court of Appeals of North Carolina allows minors to testify about their own religious beliefs during custody hearings. However, the court can decide that a minor is too young to submit such testimony.