Baptist children's homes in dispute with state over church attendance

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (AP) - Directors of the Tennessee Baptist Children's Homes believe their core mission is spiritual growth and Sunday morning church attendance for the state foster children they house. But a new state contract required by the settlement of a federal lawsuit says the homes cannot infringe on the right to religious freedom of the children if they want to continue caring for them.

"We cannot agree not to have our children, when they're able, to be in church. That's what families do," said Bryant Millsaps, president of the children's homes and a former Tennessee secretary of state.

"We believe a critical part of our success in transforming and bringing healing into the lives of children who have been abused, abandoned and neglected has been from introducing them to a Christian model of what home is, and part of that is to worship together," Millsaps said.

But the children must be given a choice by the homes, the state Department of Children's Services says.

"To us, it's a basic constitutional right for our children to have a voice if they want to attend and where they want to attend," DCS spokeswoman Carla Aaron said.

Millsaps was asked to explain his situation to a House committee earlier this week by Rep. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, who wants DCS to continue sending children to the Baptist homes.

"If we have a safe, wholesome environment that doesn't cost the state any money, we certainly need to find a way to use them," Black said. "This home has done a wonderful job. They have spaces and we don't have places for our children to go."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee believes placing state children where Baptist church attendance is mandatory violates the separation of church and state.

"I think it's wonderful they have quality programs and spaces available, because there's no question the state needs those kinds of placements, but the key is there can't be strings attached," executive director Hedy Weinberg said.

Tabitha Dyer, 18, a senior at Brentwood High School, has lived at the Baptist home for eight years and defended its family setting and church requirement.

"I really love it here," said Dyer, who is not in state custody and lives with five other teenagers in one of the campus cottages with her house parents, the Dyers, who are not related to her.

"I think it's a great thing," she said about attending church. "When you go to school, some kids get ridiculed for living at the (Baptist) home. It's good to have church friends who support you and are behind you."

The homes have previously operated without a state contract because they were funded by Baptist churches instead of taxpayers, Millsaps said. That changed under the "Brian A." settlement, which requires contracts with all agencies DCS uses.

Foster parents also are required to sign contracts saying they will not infringe on a child's religious freedoms, Aaron said.

The number of children at the Baptist homes' 10 campuses has dropped from 40 to 12 in the last two years, Millsaps said. The homes care for children in state custody, as well as referrals from pastors, judges and others, he said.

Aaron said the biggest reason fewer children are being referred to the Baptist Children's homes, and to other group homes as well, is that the "Brian A." settlement requires the state to put children in foster homes if at all possible.

DCS hopes to work out a plan with the Baptist homes to send children who need more intensive treatment, which could be permitted under the court order, Aaron said.

"...wholesome environment that doesn't cost the state any money..."

That's enough to negate the ACLU's claims for me.

Also, I have always wondered why, if the secularists and atheists believe that religion is a fairy tale and that God does not exist, are they so threatened by it?

Are they threatened when children emulate Harry Potter and pretend to play Quiddich(?) or cast spells while believing that some bad wizard exists incorporeal?

I'm always amazed at the logic of these liberal secularists like the Aaron women. Children has " a basic Constitutional right" to decide whether they want to go to church - but I bet they do not have a basic Constitutional right to decide not to go to a government school. That would be truancy.

"Shades of the "Faith Based Initiative" to come. Just wait until Christian charities get hooked to federal dollars."

I don't think so ...

"To us, it's a basic constitutional right for our children to have a voice if they want to attend and where they want to attend," DCS spokeswoman Carla Aaron said.

Therein Lays the problem. Non Christians think in terms of I, me and mine and Christians (are suppossed/taught to) think in terms of Jesus and others first.

This will always be the conflict between Christianity and others.

I worked in a group home and one Sunday the girls decided they were athiests and were not going to church because it was against their constitutional rights. All they wanted to do was sleep in, I said that's fine, but since it was God who created a day of rest, we were going to weed that one acre garden by hand if we did not go to church. It took them less than 10 minutes to get dressed for church. They decided they weren't athiests after all.

It would be nice if the ACLU would actually spend time with those kids in group homes and understand just what kind of hell they have already been through. The one's who become productive citizens when they reach adulthood are usually the one's who become Christians and are healed by the grace of God. The one's who perpetuate the cycle of abuse and sponging off the taxpayers are the one's who never see the need for change.

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