A lot, and I do mean a lot, has been made of the case of Amanda Voydatch, a 10-year-old homeschooler ordered by the Court in New Hampshire to attend public school this year. The general Christian consensus can be summed up by the mother's lawyer, John Simmons.
Although there is no dispute that Amanda is excelling academically and is generally interactive with her peers, her religious beliefs were seen as being held a bit too sincerely, Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney John Anthony Simmons explained to The Christian Post.
"What this has become is an assault on the child’s faith," Simmons said.
Except that it's not. What this case revolves around is an assault on the child herself.
The court order* stated: "According to the guardian ad litem's further report and testimony, the counselor found Amanda to lack some youthful characteristics. She appeard to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith." The guardian noted that during a counseling session, Amanda tried to witness to the counselor and appeared "visibly upset" when the counselor purposefully did not pay attention.
The guardian also noted that Amanda's relationship with her father suffered because she did not think he loved her as much as he said he did due to the fact that he refused to "adopt her religious beliefs."
That's typical divorced parent child abuse bullshit and it has nothing to do with religion. "Daddy doesn't love you as much as I do." "If mommy really loved you, she'd blahblahblah."
Daddy doesn't love you as much as I do because he doesn't love Jesus the right way.
That's abusive, plain and simple. I'll bet mommy followed that up with "Daddy's going to hell!" Oh, wait, I just read the Court Order in its entirety, and yes, she did.
Can you imagine being 10 years old and believing that (a) Daddy doesn't love you and (b) Daddy's going to hell? Frankly, I think the mother is lucky the Judge didn't change custody on her.
*Properly spelled "Court Order" and it is fascinating reading.
