No parent should have to endure the ordeal faced by Daniel and Bianca Samson, who just lost an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to regain custody of two of their daughters. Even after the Samsons were certified as fit parents, state officials refuse to return their children to their care. They were accused of “religious extremism,” after all. For a secularist, could any abuse be worse than that?

The Samson family’s travails began in December 2022, when the Swedish government took custody of their two eldest children, Sara (11) and Tiana (9 or 10). Their eldest daughter, who struggles with both physical and mental health, had filed a false abuse report at school over her parents’ refusal to allow her to have a smartphone or makeup. (Although some parents may reach a different conclusion, it’s entirely legitimate for parents to maintain that no 11-year-old should have a smartphone and makeup, especially not one with mental health struggles.)

There was no merit to the abuse report, which seems to be merely a thoughtless act of tweenage petulance. Prosecutors found no evidence of abuse and dropped all allegations against the parents. In fact, their daughter soon retracted the report, likely when she realized the serious consequences it entailed.

An inherent danger of a system that allows minors to tattle on their parents at school is that young people just entering puberty are likely — nay, certain — to say many foolish things they will soon regret. This does not mean that school officials should never listen when students speak up about abuse at home; it does mean that grown-ups should be more responsible in how they handle those reports.

Despite being cleared of all wrongdoing, Sweden required the Samsons, ex-pats from Romania, to take mandatory parenting training over six months from January to June 2024. This was a humiliating ritual, especially for veteran parents who were still caring for five children at home. They could have taught the class!

Upon completion of the training, the two therapists who taught the course certified the Samsons’ fitness for parenting. Yet even then, the state refused to return the two oldest Samson girls.

Swedish social services justified this refusal by accusing the Samsons of “religious extremism.” How could they not be religious extremists? They gathered with their church three times a week, the state alleged. Whether state officials’ motive was to prevent Sara and Tiana from becoming terrorists, or to prevent them from believing the gospel of Jesus Christ and showing his love to a lost world is unclear.

What is clear is that the Swedish court system viewed the Samsons with as much disfavor as the social workers. The Supreme Court of Sweden declined to overturn the ruling against them, and now even the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dismissed their appeal for failing to exhaust domestic legal options. The Samsons’ legal team, Alliance Defending Freedom International, is now assessing whether there are any domestic legal options left to pursue.

At this point, Sara and Tiana have been separated from their parents for more than three years. The girls have also been kept apart from one another and have been shuffled through three separate foster placements. Daniel and Bianca Samson are permitted only one supervised visit with their daughter each month, which is made more difficult by the distance between them. Social workers are now seeking to cut off the parents’ contact altogether, with the intention of putting the girls up for adoption — even though the parents have been vindicated of any wrongdoing with regard to their daughters.

How are the girls faring amid these challenging circumstances? After all, the whole point of social service interventions is to seek the child’s best interest, is it not? They are faring just as poorly as might be expected after being ripped from a loving home, torn from one another’s arms, and pushed through a revolving door of foster homes. Sara has consistently expressed her wish to return home, and her mental and physical health have deteriorated. Both girls have attempted suicide during their separation, according to the parents. No happy life story ever begins, “the government took me away from a loving home.”

“It is tragic — and unacceptable — that a child who recanted her allegations and yearns to be home remains separated from her family, resulting in extended and severe mental distress,” argued ADF international legal counsel Guillermo Morales Sancho. “The element of religious discrimination is also unmistakable in this case. The state labeled the family as religious extremists solely because of their active practice of their Christian faith. Parents have the primary responsibility and right to raise their children. When the state interferes with family life based on values-based parenting choices or discrimination on the basis of faith, fundamental freedoms are at stake.”

Indeed, what moves this case from outrageous to utterly shocking is the fact that the state’s only justification for keeping the Samson family separated is the Christian faith of the parents. This is Sweden we’re talking about! Once a hotbed of the Protestant Reformation, Sweden maintained an official state church until 2000, when it was severed from the state. Although membership has declined, the Church of Sweden still boasts 5.4 million members, more than half the total population. Yet this country with a rich Christian heritage is now punishing parents for simply being Christians!

At this point, some critically-minded readers may be thinking that many of the members of the liberal Church of Sweden are likely nominal Christians who rarely darken a church door, and the state’s reaction to the Samsons’ active involvement in church suggests that they are correct. Yet it remains shocking that the state judged the Samsons to be extremists not for any point of doctrine (as Paivi Rasanen in neighboring Finland) but for simply attending frequently. If the Samsons took their kids to yoga three times a week, social workers would consider that an intense hobby — why not church?

The anti-Christian prejudices of the Swedish social workers not only discriminated against the Samsons’ attendance at religious worship, but they also prevented the Samsons from carrying out a central Christian duty. In “not neglecting to meet together” with other believers, Daniel and Bianca Samson were merely obeying the command of Scripture (Hebrews 10:25). The same Scripture instructs them to “not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

Indeed, the Scriptures are persistent on this point: parents have a religious duty to teach their children about God, his love, and his commands, and his ways:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).

As I researched and wrote this story, my involuntary response was utter horror at the anti-human callousness of post-Christian, progressive statism — toward parents, toward children, and toward Christianity itself. Perhaps you had the same reaction. It made me very grateful to live in the United States of America, where the First Amendment protects religious freedom, and Supreme Court jurisprudence recognizes the natural, inalienable rights of parents.

But the sad reality is, the same sort of tragedy can happen here too, especially on the transgender issue. Blue states have passed laws authorizing the state to take custody of a child for the purpose of giving that child gender-denying drugs. Hospital staff at some of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals have lied to parents and taken their children for the purposes of pressuring them into gender transitions. Even in states like Indiana and Montana, Christian parents have lost custody of their children for refusing to deny biological reality.

I’m grateful to live in America. But I also recognize the culture’s increasing hostility to Christianity is irrational and therefore unpredictable. One day, American Christians may wake up to find our rights as parents and as Christians have been abruptly terminated. This is a reason for vigilance and political engagement. It is also a reason for parents (and grandparents) to pour into your children as much love and Scripture as you can. Whether from mounting persecution or any number of other severe acts of providence (a car crash, a terminal diagnosis), we parents can’t really know what moment with our kids will be our last. So let’s make every moment count.