The Maine Supreme Judicial Court recently upheld a lower court decision granting a father, Matthew Bradeen, final decision-making authority over his daughter’s medical care and religious upbringing. The case centers on the child’s mother, Emily Bickford, who brought their daughter to an evangelical church that, Bradeen argued, caused her anxiety and panic attacks.
Bradeen and Bickford, who are divorced, originally shared parental rights and responsibilities, including decisions concerning their daughter’s religious upbringing and medical care.
Court documents revealed that the daughter was exposed to messages at Calvary Chapel Greater Portland suggesting that her father would suffer in hell for eternity. Additionally, while the case was ongoing, the mother refused to remove her daughter from a service in which pastor Travis Carey delivered a six-and-a-half-minute prayer focused on Bradeen and the custody dispute.
According to the Maine Monitor, Carey’s prayer mentioned the parents and child by name “almost 30 times,” described Bradeen as being in “need of salvation” and referred to the proceedings as an “attack on God’s Word.”
The state’s highest court was careful to note that its decision was based on the “best interest of the child” and did not concern “the substance of Bickford’s beliefs.” In addition to the religious dimension of the case, Bickford opposed vaccinating the daughter and using antibiotics to treat her.
Both Bradeen’s and Bickford’s attorneys have acknowledged that the case could likely reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Liberty Counsel, which represented Bickford, says it plans to petition the court for review.
“If we do not get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn this awful ruling, then parents everywhere can be stripped of their right to raise their children in their own faith,” Liberty Counsel said. The conservative legal group characterized the lower court as finding Bickford to be a great parent “EXCEPT for the fact that she is a born-again Christian raising her child in a Bible-believing church.”
Michelle King, who represented Bradeen, praised the ruling but framed it less as a religious freedom issue and more as a decision-making concern.
“You can’t just leave a child’s life hanging in balance while parents can’t get along and decide things together,” King told News Center Maine.
Neither Carey nor Calvary Chapel was part of the lawsuit. However, the Maine Monitor reported that other churches affiliated with the broader Calvary Chapel movement have been involved in several religious liberty cases in Maine in recent years.
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