NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Religious freedom is at the center of a dispute between the state and a Baptist children's home that requires state foster children to attend Sunday morning church services, according to The Tennessean.

Spiritual growth and church attendance are at the core of the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home mission, according to president Bryant Millsaps.

But a new state contract dictates that the Baptist home cannot infringe on the children's right to religious freedom.

"We cannot agree not to have our children, when they're able, to be in church. That's what families do," Millsaps said.

The home has a campus in Brentwood and nine others across Tennessee.

"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.

The state Department of Children's Services wants the home to give children a choice.

"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," said Carla Aaron, a DCS spokeswoman.

State Rep. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, asked Millsaps to explain his plight to a House committee earlier this week because she wants DCS to continue sending chidlren to the Baptist home.

"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."

However, she said some religious considerations must be made.

"Of course, if you have a 14-year-old Buddhist, we're not going to send them to the Baptist home," she said. "But if that child and family is agreeable to a faith-based atmosphere, we need to use them."

Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, said placing state children in a place where Baptist church attendance is mandatory violates separation of church and state.

The home is privately funded by Baptist churches. But a recent federal court order requires contracts with all agencies DCS uses, including foster parents, saying they will not infringe on a child's religious freedoms.