The problem started three years ago when Ava told her noncustodial father Matthew Bradeen, a non-believer, that she wanted to be baptized. Matthew was already irritated that his daughter wore Christian T-shirts to his house for visitation. He was also apparently offended that his then-11-year-old daughter kept leaving Christian literature at his house and about her attempts to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with him.

Matthew ran to court. He flew a former sociology professor all the way from California and paid her to testify. Janja Lalich was a member of a radical Marxist-Leninist group, the Democratic Workers Party (DWP), in the 1970s–1980s. That group was explicitly Marxist-Leninist in ideology. She later came to view that DWP as a cult and left. Now she focuses on churches and tends to think churches are also “cults.”

She testified that Calvary Chapel Portland followed the “Moses model” because the church teaches that there are absolutes, right and wrong, good and evil.

Though she never met or examined Ava, the professor was allowed to testify that Calvary Chapel, a popular mainstream Christian church, as well as any other Christian church that “teaches the bible chapter by chapter, verse by verse,” has the potential to be “psychologically harmful” to Ava.

The order issued by the court is the most hostile opinion I have ever read. It wreaks of animus toward Christianity and mocks Emily and Ava’s Christian faith. The judge refused to capitalize the word “God” throughout the decision (which violates basic legal writing standards) and even had the temerity to chastise Ava's mother for allowing the church to pay over her daughter!

The order banned Emily from taking Ava to Calvary Chapel and from associating with anyone or anything associated with Calvary Chapel. The order then gives Matthew total veto power over any church, religious event, religious literature, and even exposure to the Bible. Help us overturn this outrageous order! And DOUBLE YOUR GIFT.

Matthew Bradeen has taken this newfound power to the extreme. He has denied every single church Emily and Ava have suggested over the past two years. Because of this outrageous order, Emily has not been able to take Ava to any church event for over two years.

Since December 2024, Ava had to cut off ALL contact with ALL her church friends! This is devastating for Emily and Ava.

The order even allows Matthew to ban Emily from reading or studying the Bible with Ava!

Ava is 13 now, and she loves Jesus more than ever, despite these attempts to crush her young faith. But she misses her church friends.

She and her mother, Emily, had attended Calvary Chapel for 3½ years before this court order.

Our case is now in the Maine Supreme Court’s hands.

After the Maine Supreme Court issues its decision, we will either go to the U.S. Supreme Court (if the ruling is adverse) or return to the lower court to help set the captives free of this tyranny.

Emily’s presence and her story evoked tears at our annual gala last Saturday. I cannot emphasize enough what a wonderful, godly woman and caring mother Emily is, and how amazingly Christ is working in her and her daughter’s lives, despite attempts to keep Ava from pursuing Jesus.

Emily was honored with our Defender of Liberty Award for refusing to relinquish her God-given RIGHT as a mother to raise her own child in her Christian faith.

We need your help to continue defending Ava, her mom, Emily Bickford, and Christian parents like her from around the country. We never charge our clients because few people, especially single moms and teenage girls like Emily and Ava, could afford to fight their cases all the way to the Supreme Court.

Instead, Emily and our other clients rely on YOU, the faithful Liberty Counsel supporter. Support our legal fund today and a generous Challenge Grant will DOUBLE the impact of your gift.

Finally, please be in prayer for Emily and Ava. Pray too that Matt Bradeen lets Jesus into his heart.

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

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