A custody dispute in Maine has escalated into a constitutional battle over religious liberty, after the state’s highest court unanimously upheld an order barring a Christian mother from taking her 13-year-old daughter to church or exposing her to religious teachings without the father’s approval.
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The case, now headed toward a possible U.S. Supreme Court appeal, has drawn national attention as advocates warn it could set a troubling precedent for the intersection of parental rights, custody law, and the First Amendment.
From CBN:
The Maine Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a custody order prohibiting a mother from taking her 13-year-old daughter to her church or religious events. The court reportedly also upheld that Emily Bickford can’t expose her daughter to religious beliefs, like the Bible, without approval from the girl’s father.
“This opinion rejects the First Amendment right of a fit parent to raise her child consistent with her Christian faith,” said Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver. “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.”
Liberty reports that a lower court in Maine concluded that although Bickford is a fit parent and “there has been no showing of harm to (the child) associated with a belief system that is rooted in the Bible,” the state court raised concerns about mainstream Christian teachings of Heaven, Hell, eternal salvation, angels, demons, and teaching the Bible “verse by verse, chapter by chapter.”
According to Liberty Counsel, which is representing Bickford, the girl’s parents were never married, and Bickford maintained primary custody of her daughter, Ava, while the father, identified as Bradeen, had visitation rights. Since December 2024, Bickford has been challenging a custody order that prohibits her from bringing Ava to Calvary Chapel in Portland, Maine, a case that has become known as Bickford v. Bradeen.
Part of the dispute centers on a church service in which Bradeen was mentioned by name when the pastor prayed for his salvation. Liberty Counsel also says that after attending Calvary Chapel for three years, Ava decided to be baptized, a decision that reportedly upset her father and helped fuel the ongoing legal battle. Bradeen has argued the church was a dangerous and harmful environment that caused his daughter anxiety, claiming she suffered a panic attack after hearing the church’s teachings on the rapture.
Courts subsequently granted Bradeen decision-making authority over all matters related to Ava’s religious exposure. Staver argued the order effectively gave the father absolute, unreviewable authority to deny any association with the Bible, religious philosophy, church attendance, or any religious organization or individual.
Michelle King, an attorney representing the father, said Bradeen is satisfied with the outcome so far, acknowledging that the case has drawn significant media attention, which she said is difficult for any parent to navigate. King said she had anticipated all along that the case could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
Liberty Counsel is now asking the nation’s highest court to take up the case and evaluate the broader constitutional questions it raises about a fit parent’s right to raise a child according to her faith.
For many believers, this case cuts to the heart of what it means to raise a child in the faith. scripture instructs parents to train up a child in the way she should go (Proverbs 22:6) and to teach God’s commandments diligently to the next generation (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). When courts intervene in that sacred responsibility, even amid custody disputes, it raises weighty questions about the limits of state authority over a parent’s constitutional right to pass on her faith.
Let us pray for Emily Bickford as she continues this legal battle, for wisdom for the justices who may ultimately hear this case, and for young Ava as she navigates the complexities of her family and her faith. Let us also pray for the protection of religious liberty and parental rights for families across the country facing similar struggles.
How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.
(Excerpt from CBN. Photo Credit: KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA / Pexels).
