{"id":7949,"date":"2026-09-02T22:13:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7949"},"modified":"2026-09-02T22:13:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:13:51","slug":"christian-mom-ordered-by-top-court-not-to-take-daughter-to-church-after-childs-dad-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7949","title":{"rendered":"Christian mom ordered by top court not to take daughter to church after child’s dad objects"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Maine mom has been ordered by the state\u2019s top court not to take her daughter to church after the child\u2019s dad objected.<\/p>\n

Read more Clippers stripped of five first-round picks, fined $30 million for Kawhi Leonard cap scandal in NBA bombshell<\/a><\/p>\n

Emily Bickford appeared in Maine\u2019s highest court on Tuesday to challenge a December 2024 custody order prohibiting her from bringing her daughter to her evangelical church,\u00a0WMTW reported.<\/p>\n

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled a Portland District Court judge was correct to give the then-11-year-old\u2019s father, Matthew Bradeen, the power to decide whether his daughter could attend the Calvary Chapel in Westbrook, ME,\u00a0the Maine Monitor reported.<\/p>\n

Bradeen argued the church was a \u201cdangerous and harmful environment\u201d that had caused his daughter to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks after hearing the pastor\u2019s teaching about the rapture, a belief that good Christians will ascend to heaven at the end of the world, leaving nonbelievers behind.<\/p>\n

Bickford\u2019s attorneys, led by Mat Staver of Christian nonprofit Liberty Counsel, argued that the initial decision violated the mom\u2019s rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.<\/p>\n

The case was previously argued before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in November 2025, and the same court affirmed the ruling on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The court rejected Bickford\u2019s claims that the 2024 order was hostile to her religion by referring to it as a \u201ccult\u201d in its .<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Green Street Hooligans\u2019 director cheers murder of mom stabbed in Times Square with Luigi Mangione meme<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe court found that the child was harmed by Bickford\u2019s decisions to expose the child to messages that characterized Bradeen as an \u2018enemy\u2019 who seeks to \u2018persecute\u2019 the child and her faith, and by Bickford\u2019s unwillingness to prevent the child from receiving those messages or to take any other steps to reduce the risk of alienating her from Bradeen,\u201d read the opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s finding reflected simply that it is harmful for a child to hear negative and frightening messages about one parent from the other parent or the other parent\u2019s authority figures,\u201d the opinion concluded.<\/p>\n

Liberty Counsel said it will now ask the US Supreme Court to take up the case following the decision by Maine\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cA Christian mom in Maine has been prohibited from taking her 13-year-old daughter to church or even read the Bible to her for nearly two years \u2014 not even for an Easter or Christmas service or a Bible study,\u201d Liberty Counsel said in a\u00a0statement on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting for Emily\u2019s right to raise her daughter in accordance with her Christian beliefs and will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take this case and OVERRULE this decision,\u201d the group\u2019s statement continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepriving one parent their right to instill their religious views into their child and granting sole authority to the other parent fails to give proper protection to parental rights and religious freedom under the First Amendment,\u201d said Liberty Counsel founder and chairman, Mat Staver. \u201cThe implications of this opinion pose a serious threat to religious freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Mom of crazed Times Square killer questions why cops couldn\u2019t grab her as she lunged at them with knives<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emily Bickford appeared in Maine’s highest court on Tuesday to challenge a December 2024 custody order prohibiting her from bringing her daughter to her evangelical church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian mom ordered by top court not to take daughter to church after child's dad objects - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7949\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian mom ordered by top court not to take daughter to church after child's dad objects - 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