From the Post-Gazzette
Visitors to the Web site for the Silver Ring Thing will see a gathering of 415 smiling youths in baseball caps and baggy jeans that occurred 10 days ago in northwestern Pennsylvania. All around them are flashy lights, music and testimony. Many of the students show off their $12 silver rings. The rings are a symbol of their pledges to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. Such is the Silver Ring Thing, a faith-centered program that sometimes runs for three hours and is known to feature bonfires, luaus and special guests. The "thing" bills itself as an experience in abstinence-only education.
It's more than that, claims the American Civil Liberties Union, and because the group has gotten $1 million in federal funding, that's a constitutional problem. This week, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in Boston alleging the group has moved beyond educating into evangelizing. The ACLU claims that violates the constitutional principle of separation of church and state and further blurs the line between using federal funding to fuel faith-based programs.
"It's very much religiously based," said Barbara Feige, head of the Pittsburgh ACLU. "The organization sees itself as bringing students to Christ; it uses federal funds to do this and that poses a constitutional problem, because it amounts to government-endorsed religion." For at least a year, the ACLU has been observing the group. It says the silver ring itself has an inscribed biblical verse and that there is no equivalent secular ring. During presentations, organizers quote Bible passages on stage; students who wear the ring make avow to remain abstinent, which the group calls a covenant before God; for follow-up, the students are encouraged to get the Silver Ring Thing Bible, which is full of Christian messages, and there's no secular equivalent, said Feige.
The debate over secular education or proselytizing occasionally flares up as federal funding of abstinence education has increased over the past four years. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which doles out much of the funding, in 2001, approximately $82 million was spent on abstinence education. In 2005, approximately double that amount will be spent, about $167 million. Since 2003, the Silver Ring Thing has received about $1.3 million as part of the Bush administration's effort to broaden abstinence-only education.
Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania believes the message of Silver Ring Thing should be more comprehensive and says the group in Pennsylvania gets a significant chunk of government money. In 2004, it received a $400,000 federal grant, one of the largest of 10 given to abstinence programs in Western Pennsylvania. Officials with the Silver Ring Thing did not return phone calls yesterday and did not provide a statement from the organization responding to the charges.
The president and founder of the group, Denny Pattyn, a native Pittsburgher, started the outreach program 10 years ago in Yuma, Ariz. In 2000, he introduced the Silver Ring Thing to Christ Church at Grove Farm in Ohio Township, where he was working. Three years ago, Pattyn announced he wanted to expand the program to 75 cities and would seek $1.75 million in federal seed money. He said he was working with U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, both conservative Republican legislators.
Across the nation, the organization now claims at least 20,000 teenage members from about 15 states who have agreed to wait until marriage for sex. The program is expanding internationally and is sending 30 men and women to Glasgow, Scotland, Dublin, Ireland, and other cities in the United Kingdom for the summer. The group is seeking funding to have a presence in Africa. Secular health and sexuality programs, which often must compete for funding, say the messages of the Silver Ring Thing don't offer enough education and can be misleading.
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