Maine Mom Will Fight Back After Court Says Father Can Prohibit Their Daughter From Attending Church

A Maine mother will continue to fight back after the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the father will have the power to decide whether or not their daughter could attend an evangelical church.

According to ABC affiliate WMTW, Emily Bickford challenged a previous custody order so that she could bring her daughter back to Calvary Chapel church in Westbrook.

It was determined on Tuesday, September 1, that the lower court’s ruling will stand after Matthew Bradeen said that the church’s “dangerous and harmful environment” gave their 13-year-old daughter anxiety, per The Maine Monitor.

In the Supreme Judicial Court’s published opinion, it stated that Bradeen and Bickford’s child has allegedly “experienced fear and anxiety” associated with the church’s teachings and has “asked Bradeen a lot of questions about Heaven and Hell.”

While Bradeen expressed his concern, Bickford’s response “was that she lives under God’s law, not the state’s law,” it stated in the opinion.

The court’s opinion stated that Bradeen is “better suited to determine whether certain religious activities are in the child’s best interest” after “Bickford had allowed the child to receive messages that alienate her from her father and cause her psychological harm.”

Bickford’s attorneys, including Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, previously said that the district court’s decision violates her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Liberty Counsel has now said, per WMTW and The Maine Monitor, that they plan to bring the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This opinion rejects the First Amendment right of a fit parent to raise her child consistent with her Christian faith,” Staver said in a statement, according to WMTW. “This opinion goes against other state court decisions involving custody in the context of religious free exercise rights and ignores precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court. We will ask the High Court to take this case and overrule the decision.”

Bradeen’s attorney Michelle King also spoke out after the ruling, saying to The Maine Monitor that the most recent decision is “well thought-out and reasoned.”

“Anytime you’re in court, it’s stressful,” King said. “But this case has definitely garnered a lot of media attention, and I think that’s always difficult for parents.”