A single mom is difficult a custody order that prohibits her from taking her 12-year-old daughter to a Calvary Chapel church in Maine after a decrease courtroom accepted the declare that the denomination is a “cult,” granting the lady’s father the ability to find out which spiritual actions she’s allowed to attend.
In combating the December 2024 custody order, the mom, Emily Bickford, is receiving authorized help from the Liberty Counsel, a Christian authorized group that has helped convey the mom’s case earlier than the Maine Supreme Judicial Courtroom.
“Calvary Chapel is just not a cult. This custody order banning Emily Bickford from taking her youngster to a Christian church due to its biblical teachings violates the First Modification,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver mentioned in a assertion shared with The Christian Publish.
“The breadth of this courtroom order is breathtaking as a result of it even prohibits contact with the Bible, spiritual literature, or spiritual philosophy,” Staver continued. “The custody order can’t prohibit Bickford from taking her daughter to church. The implications of this order pose a critical menace to non secular freedom.”
The state supreme courtroom heard oral arguments for the case on Nov. 13, with Liberty Counsel asserting that the district courtroom’s resolution violated Brickford’s rights beneath the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Structure.
“The district courtroom claimed that it was ‘not taking a place on any spiritual Precept,'” attorneys for Bickford argued. “Balderdash.”
“All the compelling curiosity dialogue (and, actually your entire order) does precisely that. The district courtroom denigrated Bickford’s spiritual beliefs as ‘cultic’ and psychologically dangerous, after which used that characterization to strip Bickford of her basic proper to direct the spiritual upbringing of her daughter,” the authorized doc acknowledged.
Because of the decrease courtroom ruling, the daddy of Bickford’s daughter, Matthew Bradeen, was given “the proper and duty to make selections relating to whether or not [Minor Child] attends any companies, gatherings, or occasions related to Calvary Chapel.”
The district courtroom ruling states that each events are required to analysis and focus on the church and whether or not their daughter’s participation is in her finest pursuits.
“Nevertheless, given Ms. Bickford’s historical past of relinquishing her unbiased resolution making to Calvary Chapel, Mr. Bradeen is awarded the proper to make last selections relating to [Minor Child’s] participation in different church buildings and non secular organizations within the occasion of a dispute between the events,” the district courtroom’s resolution acknowledged.
In keeping with Liberty Counsel’s appellant transient, Bickford began attending the Calvary Chapel Church in Portland in Might 2021. After researching the church on-line, Bradeen grew to become involved about its teachings, similar to the concept “folks can solely be saved by assembly [G]od on [G] od’s phrases.”
The daddy additionally objected to his daughter attending Calvary Chapel Church in Portland as a result of it teaches the Bible “verse by verse, chapter by chapter,” together with what it says about everlasting damnation, fallen angels, demons and warfare.
As a part of his case to persuade Maine District Choose Jennifer Nofsinger to cease his daughter from attending the church, Bradeen employed California sociology professor Janja Lalich, in line with Liberty Counsel.
Liberty Counsel argued that Lalich, a “purported skilled on ‘recruitment and indoctrination processes, guidelines, and rules,'” offered testimony that the district courtroom discovered demonstrated that the Calvary Chapel was “a cultic group.”
“The district courtroom famous that, after learning Calvary Chapel, Lalich got here to the opinion that it’s a prime instance of a closed social system that follows the ‘Moses mannequin,'” Liberty Counsel wrote in its transient. “Within the ‘Moses mannequin,’ the district courtroom discovered pastors have unquestioned authority and are usually not accountable to the parishioners, some other pastors, or overseeing organizations.”
“The district courtroom made a factual discovering, primarily based on the so-called cult skilled’s testimony, that the sermons at Calvary Chapel are crammed with ‘hateful rhetoric’ — homophobia, disdain of science, and hatred of public faculties,” the attorneys for Bickford added.
Calvary Chapel is an affiliation of a whole lot of autonomous charismaticEvangelical church buildings worldwide, which started from Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in California through the Nineteen Sixties. Smith was one of many main figures of the “Jesus Motion” of the late ’60s and early Nineteen Seventies, which was the middle of the 2023 movie “Jesus Revolution.”
One other conclusion the district courtroom reached was that attending Calvary Chapel was harming Bickford’s daughter, because the transient famous. As proof, the district courtroom cited the Calvary Chapel pastor main the congregation in prayer over the custody battle at a worship service that Bickford and her daughter attended.
Along with giving Bradeen the proper to make the ultimate resolution about his daughter’s participation in church and non secular organizations, the district courtroom granted him last decision-making authority over the kid’s medical care.
“The district courtroom explicitly famous that Bickford’s spiritual beliefs counsel she is ‘unlikely’ to hunt psychological well being counseling or different medical therapy,” Liberty Counsel famous in its transient.
“However the district courtroom discovered — opposite to the cited references above — that there’s ‘no proof that Ms. Bickford’s spiritual beliefs or practices have performed a job in her resolution making,'” the Christian authorized group added.
Bradeen sought to make a custody modification request after his daughter allegedly started to expertise panic assaults after she began attending the Calvary Chapel in Portland, Information Middle Maine stories.
The daddy additionally claimed that his daughter started exhibiting habits that he discovered alarming, similar to leaving notes round the home that mentioned “the rapture is coming.”
In keeping with Bradeen, his daughter was involved that sure members of her household wouldn’t make it to Heaven as a result of they didn’t attend the identical church.
The Maine Supreme Courtroom is anticipated to decide after it critiques the arguments and briefs within the case.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Publish. She will be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Observe her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
