Posted on 04/01/2004 8:53:28 AM PST by joesnuffy
State drops Christian children's home Will no longer refer kids to facility because of church-attendance policy
Posted: April 1, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Because the Tennessee Department of Children's Services disapproves of a successful children's home's practice of taking its child residents to church each week, the state agency will no longer refer children to the care facility.
The new government policy seeks to ensure the religious freedom of the children under the state's care in compliance with a federal court order that requires a state contract for all children's care providers.
Those who run the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home, which has 10 separate campuses across the state, say their churchgoing ways have served children well for its 113-year history and they're not about to change things now.
"We believe a child needs to be in church," Dr. Bryant Millsaps, president of the home, told Baptist Press. "We believe a child needs to know the Bible. The decision that any child or young adult would make about whether or not they would become a professing Christian is their decision. It's not ours."
Millsaps emphasized, "They say the children who are in residential care who have the highest probability of long-term life success – breaking the cycle of violence, the cycle of poverty, the cycle of ignorance – are those children in residential care that provides them with faith-related and moral teachings."
The government agency says the Baptist home should give children who are wards of the state the choice of whether or not to attend church.
''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,'' Carla Aaron, a DCS spokeswoman, told the Tennessean.
Millsaps says the state's own records prove his facility is the most successful.
"Their own licensing reports say that no one does it any better than we do," Millsaps said. "A couple years back, a report on [the Brentwood campus] said that the most fortunate children in residential care in the state are those who live at the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home. That's the state's own records, not ours."
The state agency will only resume referrals to the Christian facility if it drops its weekly church attendance requirement.
Millsaps says since his facility receives no money from the state and is completely funded by private donations, it is in no danger of ceasing operations even in light of the state's decision.
"Placement of a child in the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home doesn't impact our budget one bit," Millsaps, a former Tennessee secretary of state, told Baptist Press. "That means we don't have to go out and get children to operate, nor do we have to keep them to operate. We have the liberty of being able to place the best interest of the child in front of everything else."
According to the report, TBCH currently has 108 children in its care. Its capacity of 139 indicates about 31 beds have been left empty by the loss of the government referrals.
Millsaps pointed out the state has a shortage of foster care providers, yet it refuses to refer children needing care to the home.
Republican state Rep. Diane Black is urging DCS to change its policy.
''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, according to the Tenneessean. ''This home has done a wonderful job. They have spaces and we don't have places for our children to go.''
Hedy Weinberg is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. She claims placing state children in a place 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,'' she told the Tennessee paper.
Millsaps appears comfortable with his organization's position.
"We're going to be sure that we're obedient to the call of Scripture on our ministry," he said. "We're going to be obedient to the investment that Tennessee Baptists have made in this ministry for 113 years, and we believe God will honor our faithfulness and that the children who need our care will make their way here."
I think she can shut up.
Seems like this would be a reasonable compromise for all involved. What if the kids are Jewish?
In reality, its about freedom from religious influence, which can also be looked at as insulating people from the knowledge of the existence of God.
If they are kept in ignorance, then they can't be saved. Satan is the only potential winner here.
Go ahead and sue NY State, then. That doesn't change the issue here, however.
No, the state should only send them kids who are Christian or who do not object to going to church.
Church won't do any harm to a Jewish kid and especially not a Muslim. ;-)
This separation nonsense is ridiculous. Look where this bad decision got us. The whole idea was to protect the Baptists from being overrun by Episcopalians, not to control Baptist outreach. The government is running amok with the ACLU pitbull dog of Satan snapping at its heels.
"Because the Tennessee Department of Children's Services disapproves of a successful children's home's practice of taking its child residents to church each week, the state agency will no longer refer children to the care facility."
This is hardly surprising. Tennessee has become a total Welfare State, which was nearly (if not totally) bankrupted by their experiment in socialized medicine.
As usual, it's the kids that pay the price for the stupidity of the adults.
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