Source: Indy Star
By Casey Smith, Indianapolis Star
A southern Indiana Amish couple with 13 children has settled a multi-year lawsuit with the federal government, allowing the Canadian wife to become a permanent U.S. resident without submitting photos of herself in the application.
The husband, a U.S. citizen, and wife, a Canadian citizen who entered the country legally, sued the government last fall contending that submitting photographs of themselves as part of the residency application process violated their “sincerely held” religious beliefs.
Following Old Order Amish practice that photos taken of people are “graven images” and prohibited by the biblical Second Commandment, the Indiana couple won’t allow themselves to be photographed “for any reason,” according to the initial lawsuit.
Identifying the couple only as John and Jane Doe — because Old Order Amish beliefs also generally prohibit “acts of self-promotion” — the lawsuit further argued that revealing their identities “would force them to further compromise their religious beliefs, including the prohibition against acts of self-promotion.”
Categories: America, religious freedom, USA