The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed a lower court's ruling granting a father final decision-making authority over his daughter's attendance at her mother's evangelical church. The decision addresses a parental dispute concerning the child's religious upbringing and exposure to potentially harmful messages.
The case involves Matthew Bradeen and Emily Bickford, parents of a then-11-year-old daughter. Bickford had been taking their daughter to Calvary Chapel Greater Portland, an evangelical church in Westbrook, multiple times a week. Bradeen argued that the church environment was "dangerous and harmful" and had caused anxiety in their daughter, citing a panic attack she experienced after hearing teachings on the Rapture.
Initially, a Portland District Court judge sided with Bradeen, finding that certain messages the child received at the church were "psychologically damaging" due to how they characterized her father. The state's high court affirmed this ruling on Tuesday, according to The Maine Monitor. The original court order granted Bradeen the right to decide his daughter's participation in church services, activities, and interactions with members other than her mother. It also stipulated that if the parents disagreed on the child's religious exposure, the father would have the final say. The court clarified that this allocation of authority stemmed from the parents' inability to jointly make decisions regarding their daughter's religious upbringing, not from a disagreement with the mother's religious beliefs.
Pastor's Sermon Adds Complexity to Dispute
A significant aspect of the case involved a sermon delivered by Calvary Chapel pastor Travis Carey. During the ongoing legal proceedings, Bickford brought her daughter to a service where the pastor focused on the case in a six-and-a-half-minute prayer. The pastor reportedly mentioned both parents and the child by name approximately 30 times, referring to Bradeen as being "in need of salvation" and calling the court proceedings "an attack on God's Word."
The Maine Supreme Court noted that Bickford did not attempt to remove her child from this service and later described it as "appropriate." The court's written decision stated that Bickford "is unwilling to recognize, much less mitigate, the risk that these messages alienate the child from Bradeen or otherwise cause her harm."
In her original ruling, Maine District Court Judge Jennifer Nofsinger wrote that the harm to the child resulted not from the church's belief system but from Bickford's "inability to co-parent" on religious matters. The judge found that Bickford had ceded control of decisions regarding her daughter's best interests to the church, and its language had denigrated the father. The court concluded that it was harmful for a child to hear negative and frightening messages about one parent from the other parent or their authority figures.
Path Forward and Potential Appeal
Bickford's lawyer, Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel, indicated an intention to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Liberty Counsel, a Christian ministry focused on religious freedom, has been involved in other significant cases before the nation's highest court. Staver argued that the Maine court's decision violated the mother's First Amendment rights by demonstrating "open hostility" toward religious beliefs and by preventing her from influencing her child's religious upbringing as she sees fit. He suggested the ruling could put the Maine Supreme Court at odds with courts in other states and attract the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court due to its implications for the First Amendment's exercise clause.
Bradeen's lawyer, Michelle King, described the Maine high court's decision as "well thought-out and reasoned" and stated that her client was pleased with the outcome. The court affirmed that the order was based on the parents' inability to co-parent on religious matters, necessitating the allocation of final decision-making power to one parent.
Bickford and her legal team have 90 days to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.