New York, USA - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that the federal government has improperly used taxpayer dollars to fund Christian religious activities in a nationwide program called the Silver Ring Thing that uses music and comedy skits to promote premarital abstinence among teens.
The Silver Ring Thing - which has held events in dozens of cities over the last five years - is an offshoot of the John Guest Evangelistic Team, a Christian ministry based in Sewickley, Pa., near Pittsburgh. Since 2003, the program has received more than $1 million from the Department of Health and Human Services as part of the Bush administration's initiative to expand abstinence-only education.
Although many of the grant recipients have religious affiliations, they are not supposed to use the federal money for religious proselytizing. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, alleges that the Silver Ring Thing crosses this line and uses grant money to encourage young people to commit themselves to Jesus Christ.
"The courts have repeatedly said taxpayer dollars cannot be used to promote religion," said Julie Sternberg, an attorney with the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project.
Denny Pattyn, the Silver Ring Thing's founder and president, issued a statement describing the program as faith-based but saying that the federal funds had been properly used at all times. The suit names only HHS officials as defendants, and seeks to halt federal funding to the program.
The Silver Ring Thing says more than 30,000 young people have committed themselves to premarital purity after attending the program's three-hour multimedia presentations.
The suit says that when the students attending the presentations are divided into secular and religious groups they are encouraged to choose the religious option.