Maine’s highest court has ruled that a father can prevent his daughter from attending a Calvary Chapel with her mother in a contested custody case after a lower court accepted an expert's claim that the congregation is akin to a "cult." The Maine Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) released a unanimous ruling Tuesday in Emily A. Bickford v. Matthew A. Bradeen, authored by Chief Justice Valeria Stanfill.
At issue is an order of “shared parental rights and responsibilities” between Bickford and Bradeen, in which the two disagreed over who would control their child’s religious upbringing. Bradeen objected to Bickford bringing the child to Calvary Chapel Greater Portland, a theologically conservative church, and to her refusal to let the child receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Stanfill upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Bradeen, writing that the “strict scrutiny” usually given to parental rights arguments about religion “does not apply to allocations of parental rights between a child’s parents.” “Parents have a fundamental constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children, including in matters of religion,” wrote Stanfill.
“Importantly, however, the parents share that right.” “An allocation of rights to one parent inherently limits the authority of the other but does not necessarily infringe upon the constitutional rights of either parent.” The ruling stated that “parental rights and responsibilities must be allocated in whatever fashion best serves the best interest of the child." The court was “unpersuaded by Bickford’s claim" that the lower court had shown “hostility toward her religion by describing her church in offensive terms, including referring to it as a 'cult.'" "The court used the word 'cult' only in describing the testimony of [California sociology professor Janja] Lalich, the stipulated expert on 'cults.' The court noted that 'cult' serves as a shorthand for what sociologists like Lalich call