The 3 - November 30, 2025

A church in Bryan, Ohio, called Dad's Place, has been caught up in a skirmish with the city over its housing of homeless people in its facility.  First Liberty Institute, which represents the church, whose pastor is named Chris Avell, posted on its website:

Dad’s Place is a church in northwest Ohio that operates 24-hours a day to serve the most vulnerable in its community.  For over two years, the City of Bryan, Ohio has been attempting to shut down the Church’s ministry through multiple criminal and civil proceedings, including 18 criminal zoning charges, middle-of-the-night fire inspections, and both criminal and civil fire code prosecutions.

Recently, the 6th District Court of Appeals in Ohio reversed a lower court ruling against the church, allowing Dad's Place to continue to serve its community while the case makes its way through the court system.  The website quoted from the appeals court decision which stated, in part: “Because the trial court erred in failing to address [Dad’s Place’s] arguments under the Ohio Conscience Clause we must remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings. On remand, the trial court is directed to consider [Dad’s Place’s] claim under the Ohio Constitution and to reconsider [Dad’s Place’s] free exercise claim under the U.S. Constitution using a strict scrutiny analysis.” 

In the state of Maine, there is a troubling court case that is proceeding through the system, in which the mother of a 12-year-old girl has been forbidden from allowing her daughter to participate in religious practices.  The Standing for Freedom Center website states: "On November 13, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in Bickford v. Bradeen, a case in which the mother, Emily Bickford, is appealing a custody ruling that barred her from taking her 12-year-old daughter to church, reading the Bible with her, or even associating with members of the church she attends."

A lower court judge had, according to the article, "concluded that Bickford’s daughter experienced 'psychological harm' through her attendance at Calvary Chapel Portland, a Bible-teaching, non-denominational church."  A so-called "cult expert" had labeled Calvary Chapel "cultic," and, as the article said, "potentially harmful."

Liberty Counsel is representing Emily Bickford, and the article states that Liberty Counsel is claiming that "Bickford is a fit parent who poses no danger to her child, yet the court stripped her of her right to raise her daughter according to her faith."  Also, "Liberty Counsel contends that the lower court violated the Free Exercise and Equal Protection Clauses by treating orthodox Christian doctrine as presumptively harmful, displaying what they call unconstitutional hostility toward religion."   The article also notes that the order from the lower court "...granted the father, Matthew Bradeen, sole authority to decide all religious and spiritual matters for the minor child, effectively giving him a veto over her Christian upbringing."

Perhaps you have heard of the Netflix movie called, "K-Pop Demon Hunters."  It's an animated film out of South Korea in which the main characters are a group of female pop singers who are trying to fight off a male group of demon characters.  That is according to an article at The Christian Post. Singers from the movie were featured in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year.  And, these spiritual themes are causing controversy at a school in the U.K.  The Christian Post reported:

A Church of England primary school has told families to discourage their students from singing songs from a popular animated musical, citing concerns that the film’s demon-themed content conflicts with Christian values. The move has drawn criticism from parents who say the ban is unnecessary and unfair to children who enjoy the movie.

Lilliput Church of England Infant School in Poole, Dorset, recently issued guidance asking parents to speak to their children about not performing or singing songs from the Netflix hit “KPop Demon Hunters” during school hours, The Telegraph reported.

The Christian Post article said that, "In a message sent to families, acting head teacher Lloyd Allington said the film’s references to demons were 'deeply uncomfortable' for some members of the school’s Christian community."  The article went on to say, "Allington wrote that while parents had the right to choose what media their children engaged with at home, the school was responsible for maintaining an environment sensitive to its faith-based ethos. He noted that for some Christians, references to demons, even in fictional or humorous contexts, were spiritually troubling and could be viewed as contrary to a faith that teaches children to reject evil."

After parents responded negatively to Allington's first letter, he wrote a second one, in which he "clarified that the school was not asking families to discourage their children from enjoying the movie or its songs outside school, nor would teachers convey that message in class."  He said that some parents viewed the film positively because of its themes of "courage, kindness and teamwork."  He added that, as the Post described, "the focus would be on helping students understand that their classmates may hold different religious views and that respectful dialogue was part of the school’s values."

But the acting head teacher has a point, which was driven home by the earlier review by Plugged In, which said: "There’s obviously a lot of spiritual stuff going on here involving demons and souls and whatnot. After all, the core of the story is about a trio of pop stars slaying demons to protect humanity. But if we look below the surface of these themes, we find a message that resonates with the reality of our struggles with sin, shame and depravity."  Reviewer Kennedy Unthank wrote:

I don’t expect that KPop Demon Hunters intended its message to synergize with the Christian idea of moving on from the power of our sins because of the salvation we have in Christ. Indeed, the film itself takes a more humanistic approach—that we can overcome our sins (or at least accept our flaws) through self-actualizing effort. Still, that message is but a short leap to make for the Christian parent who’d like to connect it to a more explicitly biblical one.

Admittedly, making that leap does require viewers to dive into the murky spirituality of the film. These demons may not be of the biblical variety, but they are malevolent entities nonetheless. And a couple violent and sensual moments in this song-interspersed PG film may prove too much for parents of younger kids.