An 11-year-old Maine girl became the subject of a six-and-a-half-minute prayer led by her own pastor, in the middle of her parents' custody fight over her religious upbringing. Nearly 30 times, Pastor Travis Carey of Calvary Chapel Greater Portland said the girl's name, her mother's name, and her father's name aloud to the congregation, calling the court case "an attack on God's Word" and describing her father as "in need of salvation," according to the Maine Supreme Court's account of the prayer, as reported by The Maine Monitor.

Her mother, Emily Bickford, brought her daughter to that service. Her father, Matthew Bradeen, says it added to anxiety his daughter already felt, including a panic attack after other services focused on the end of the world. Maine's Supreme Judicial Court ultimately agreed the church's language toward her father had harmed the girl, and ruled Bradeen gets the final say on whether she attends Calvary Chapel again.

This isn't about anyone's faith. It's about a child who didn't ask to be talked about in front of a room full of strangers while her parents fought over her in court. No congregation should be a stage for one parent's side of a custody case, and no child should have to hear her own family's private pain turned into a sermon.

Calvary Chapel Greater Portland and its leadership should commit, in writing, to keeping children and their family court disputes out of public services entirely, no matter which parent brings them through the door.

Sign this petition to demand Calvary Chapel Greater Portland stop naming children caught in custody disputes during services, before another child is put in the middle again.