Court Forces Non-Religious Mom To Get Christian Counseling Or Lose Custody
Holly Salzman is a loving mother of two sons who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She recently sought court aid in coparenting her children with their father, from whom she is now divorced. The judge then ordered her to attend sessions with a Christian counselor or face contempt of court charges and lose custody of her children.
Salzman said she just naturally assumed that the counselor the judge sent her to, Mary Pepper, would be someone who specialized in family and couples counseling, but as she recalls:
I walked into the session and the very first thing she said to me was, ‘I start my sessions by praying’ When I expressed my concerns that I didn’t pray she said, ‘well this is what I do’ and she proceeded to say a prayer out loud….READ MORE at LiberalAmerica
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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Andrew Bradford
Andrew Bradford is an author, academic, and political activist who lives in Atlanta. He is a Senior Writer for Liberal America and also has his own blog at deepleftfield.info
48 responses to Court Forces Non-Religious Mom To Get Christian Counseling Or Lose Custody
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Larry Schmitt September 15th, 2015 at 19:05
This is clearly wrong, and I only hope another court undoes it.
Dwendt44 September 15th, 2015 at 20:57
Her lawyer should immediately report this judge to the judicial review board and appeal his order to a higher court. Her rights are being violated.
jybarz September 16th, 2015 at 02:51
AMEN!
rg9rts September 16th, 2015 at 03:46
Get the ACLU
nola878 September 15th, 2015 at 19:09
Can you imagine if it had been an Islamic counselor? RW media would be bitching for weeks…no, years.
Persecuted Christians my ass.
katkelly57 September 15th, 2015 at 19:09
Yo judge….separation of church and state…remember that from law school?
Cabron.
whatthe46 September 15th, 2015 at 19:11
i would have been having all kinds of shit fits. what if this woman was muslim or jewish. would he still have sent them to a “christian” counselor? this is outright b.s.
amersham46 September 15th, 2015 at 19:44
Seems to fall within the realm of “Ultra Vires” as the state is trying to impose a religious doctrine upon somebody
FatRat September 15th, 2015 at 19:53
Holly Salzman should be allowed to pick any mythological deity with any combination of letters from her name. I’d personally go with Captain Marvel shouting SHAZAM for my religious based counseling needs.
http://www.needtoconsume.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/multiversitythunderworld2.jpg
The wizard lit a brazier to the left of the throne, illuminating the names of six mythological elders inscribed on the wall behind it; Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury. He explained that each of these elders would bestow an aspect of their power unto Billy, and all the boy had to do to acquire such power was to speak the wizard’s name.
Billy spoke the name “Shazam”, and a bolt of mystic lightning struck down from nowhere transforming the ten-year-old boy into a powerful, muscle-bound man.
fahvel September 16th, 2015 at 04:06
remember when the little kid would go shazoof after being bopped on the head?
Robert Kennedy September 16th, 2015 at 17:47
8^)
Warman1138 September 15th, 2015 at 20:12
An Orwellian Christian judge, follow the faith or be punished and made to conform.
granpa.usthai September 15th, 2015 at 21:14
let me guess….
mmmm – the judge is related to Kimberly Davis?
Tommie September 15th, 2015 at 22:02
I think this is what they call real persecution!
Kick Frenzy September 16th, 2015 at 01:46
So, Sharia Law is cool when it’s Christians doing it?
jybarz September 16th, 2015 at 03:09
Why does religious shit like this keeps happening?
Why are there ignorant judges, county clerks, politicians, pastors, preachers… and they are all shitty right wingers?
rg9rts September 16th, 2015 at 03:44
Ignore it and play their game…meanwhile fire your lawyer and contact the ACLU
rg9rts September 16th, 2015 at 03:46
They used to force people to go to AA…that got the ax when it was proved that AA pushed religion
whatthe46 September 16th, 2015 at 09:14
in some places they still do send you to a few hours of AA for DWI’s.
rg9rts September 16th, 2015 at 09:45
Not in New York…got their hand slapped
PeggyAnn1 September 16th, 2015 at 11:12
The assholery runs deep with the Christian Taliban in our very own US of A.
Bunya September 16th, 2015 at 13:44
I think she should complain that her non-religious beliefs are being infringed upon, go on national TV and complain, set up a “go fund me”, sit back and collect the money. That strategy seems to work well with the gay haters out there.
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 14:43
Just because the counselor is christian doesn’t mean that its christian counseling. I need more information, so she says a prayer at the beginning, whoop de do. Does that mean the entire session is god says do this, god says do that. Did she force her to pray with her? Sounds to me more like she was forced to go to a counselor, who happens to be christian, and happens to like to do a quick prayer. I admit its a little weird to continue with the prayer despite the client not being religious, but hardly a civil liberties violation.
arc99 September 16th, 2015 at 14:49
So I presume then if a person was under court order to attend counseling and the counselor was a Muslim who insisted that before counseling started in each session, they would have to remove their shoes, kneel, face east and pray to Allah, you would have no problem with that as a civil liberties violation?
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 14:55
There is a big difference in if the counselor does this, or the client is forced to (I know client probably isn’t quite the right term, but whatever). And yeah, I’m totally fine with the counselor doing this.
arc99 September 16th, 2015 at 16:19
From the original article
“”There were handouts with quotes of Psalms and other religious quotes. Pepper also gave her homework titled “who is God to me?”””
Assigning homework to write about a belief the client does not hold certainly sounds like force to me.
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 20:02
Ok, I didn’t read that part… I’ll concede that it was religious based counselling.
whatthe46 September 16th, 2015 at 19:34
i call bullshit. that’s the problem with people like you. instead of admitting the damn obvious, and being honest, which is, it would bother you if you were forced to see a muslim marriage counselor who insisted on a muslim prayer first and you were a devout christian. but, you must disagree no matter how stupid your argument will sound.
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 20:02
I don’t impose my beliefs on anyone else. I would just be like, well that was strange, moving on.
whatthe46 September 16th, 2015 at 20:29
you can tell a lot about a person when they say crap like you just posted. i will never in a million years believe that you’d be ok with being forced into counseling with someone who chooses to push religion on you, regardless of their religion, especially if you’re an atheist. and you might be in shock the first time, but, are you saying you’ll continue to go back?
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 20:45
Well, for one that’s not what I said. That is you jumping to conclusions about what I said. Notice that I said I needed more evidence and that all that I mentioned was a prayer at the beginning. Yeah, they could pray to whoever the pluck they wanted at the beginning and while I might find it weird, if that was it… I wouldn’t have a problem with… If you read below it looks like someone had more evidence that more was going on and I conceded it was in fact a religious based counselling.
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 20:49
I mean, if that’s what they need to do, for them to do there job.. good for them. If I was having surgery and had a Muslim surgeon and he felt he need to pray to before slicing me open, good for him, yes I know that’s not court ordered, and a different scenario, just making the point that a prayer by itself doesn’t mean a whole lot. Now, like was mentioned below by arc99, sounds like there was more going, so sure, it does indeed sound inappropriate.
tracey marie September 16th, 2015 at 21:09
The judge illegally mandated “CHRITIAN” counseling, stop changing the facts.
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 21:15
Ok, I think you should work on reading comprehension, I already conceded that based on what was posted by arc99 that it was, and if you read that thread I didn’t see that. The article I read was this one: http://www.liberalamerica.org/2015/09/15/court-forces-non-religious-mom-to-get-christian-counseling-or-lose-custody-of-her-children/, I don’t see the stuff that arc99 said on that one.
tracey marie September 16th, 2015 at 21:17
later on the thread, you ahve been argueing for the counseling and ignoring the christian(illegal) aspect, bite me
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 21:19
Uhh… ok. I think chronologically in my posts, that is not the case. But whatever… still trying to figure out what a TB fit is. Hope you have a nice day.
Dwendt44 September 17th, 2015 at 00:28
In addition to the opening prayer, she also pasted out religious tracts and pamphlets. Hard to say that that isn’t overbearing.
tracey marie September 17th, 2015 at 07:15
jake will deny the obvious.
Jake September 17th, 2015 at 09:46
Cool story, the part about the pamphlets wasn’t in the article I read…. Like I already mentioned.
tracey marie September 17th, 2015 at 10:00
next time read the actual article before posting stupid, stop making excuses for your ignorance
Jake September 17th, 2015 at 10:01
There are 2 articles, I read one of them… jeez.
tracey marie September 17th, 2015 at 10:03
face it jake, you were wrong and playing victim and continually posting excuses only makes you look like more of a tool…admit you were wrong and move on
Jake September 17th, 2015 at 10:04
I said I was wrong. Like I said, work on your reading comprehension.
tracey marie September 16th, 2015 at 16:03
keep prasyers out of our legal system, if it was a muslim you would be throwing a TB fit.
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 20:01
I really thought you were getting to know me, its not about guns, so why would I throw a fit?
lindsncal September 16th, 2015 at 18:11
If you don’t understand that starting a counseling session with saying a prayer doesn’t show how her ‘counseling’ is going to be religious biased, you don’t understand anything.
If it started with bowing to a satanic image, would you still defend it?
Jake September 16th, 2015 at 20:00
If the rest of the session was “normal”. I would just laugh about it later. I did say it was weird, and that would also be weird.
Wee Mousie September 16th, 2015 at 19:18
I expect a Christian marriage counsellor to be a bitch about pushing Christian doctrine upon any poor S.O, B. who is forced to take her course.
To me, it is the judge forcing anyone, no matter what their beliefs, to take a marriage counselling course led by a proselyting Christian, and grounded in Christian beliefs, which I find abusive and offensive. Especially when the person before the court is threatened by such onerous penalties for non compliance.
In my eyes, it is the judge who pronounced such an unlawful decision who should be defrocked, and not necessarily the delusional Christian marriage counsellor who should be deflocked.