Posted on 08/22/2005 7:15:15 PM PDT by Crackingham
The American Civil Liberties Union and Jenner & Block LLP applauded the federal government's decision today to suspend the flow of taxpayer dollars funding the Silver Ring Thing, a nationwide ministry that uses abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education as a means to bring "unchurched" students to Jesus Christ.
"We are pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services today recognized that the Silver Ring Thing was blatantly misusing public dollars," said Julie Sternberg, a senior staff Attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "As we have said all along, it is improper for the federal government to underwrite efforts to convert teenagers to a particular faith."
In a letter sent today to Denny Pattyn, founder of the Silver Ring Thing, the Department of Health and Human Services expressed concern that the program "may not have included adequate safeguards to clearly separate in time or location inherently religious activities from the federally-funded activities.... Based on the information received to date, we do not believe that [the Silver Ring Thing's] actual use of federal funds for its program adequately complies with Federal grant requirements."
"Today's actions by the federal government are a step in the right direction," said Daniel Mach, a partner at Jenner & Block LLP. "We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that taxpayer dollars in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are not again misused."
The ACLU filed a lawsuit in May challenging the misuse of more than one million dollars awarded by the federal government to the Silver Ring Thing since August 2003. The complaint cites numerous violations, among them that the Silver Ring Thing's flagship three-hour program features members testifying about accepting Jesus Christ, quoting from Bible passages, and providing audience members with the Silver Ring Thing Bible. Within 24 hours of the filing of the lawsuit, the Silver Ring Thing substantially altered and removed religious content from its Web site.
Evidence shows that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs do not prevent teens from having sex before marriage. Moreover, research indicates that many of these programs actually deter teens from protecting themselves from unintended pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases when they become sexually active.
"The Department of Health and Human Services was right to stop funding of the Silver Ring Thing, however, the federal government needs to take a closer look at its funding of other abstinence-only-until-marriage programs," said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "These programs have been proved not only ineffective, but also dangerous to the health and well-being of teens."
"The Department of Health and Human Services was right to stop funding of the Silver Ring Thing, however, the federal government needs to take a closer look at its funding of other abstinence-only-until-marriage programs," said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "These programs have been proved not only ineffective, but also dangerous to the health and well-being of teens."
Really, I was under the impression that abstinence programs worked and worked well. Someone is lying here.
If the devil is the living flesh of evil, then here is who I think he is. Far from appearing as a hideous demon, he is the average-looking person who walks into a room and shakes your hand with a smile. By the time he leaves, the standards of decency of everyone within that room have been lowered ever so slightly.
--- A lawyer come to mind.
Then stench continues to build
One thing for sure, you can count on those ACLU gals not knowing what abstinence is. If they weren't lawyers, the P&P squad would be picking them up quite regularly.
C'mon folks...the ACLU think the Boy Scouts are a greater threat to our society than the perverts in NAMBLA. It's easy to recognize how screwed up their priorities are!
True...they're much too busy with all those "honor rapes" and things like that.
The Silver Ring overreached, in a dumbass move, and got spanked. Just why it did not focus on the medical risks, the economic risks, etc, and instead just invoked religion in a way that made it vulnerable to legal challenge, you will have to ask them. Maybe they need better lawyers.
Abstinence is "the federal government to underwrite efforts to convert teenagers to a particular faith." ???
If that's so, as the ACLU so prejudicially declares (and it is an opinion of prejudice), then, it can be also concluded that "abortion" and anything ELSE related to human sexuality is also ("promoting...a particular faith").
There is ample room here for the counter argument, since the whole area of human sexuality as social argument can and does fall within A CODE OF VALUES by whomever. It's just that the ACLU and groups similar consider THEIR "faith" and "values" as being correct while Christianity is not.
Paganism, atheism, agnosticism...still "faiths" consisting of values subscribed to by afficiondos from a point of belief.
INTREP - Amazing!!!!
Quit trolling.
Funny how the ACLU classifies this under "Reproductive Freedom." Wuh? Sanoty below!
ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND NEWS RELEASE
August 23, 2005 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020
Court awards ADF right to intervene
on behalf of abstinence-only sex education program
ADF attorneys moving forward on behalf of Silver Ring Thing
in ACLU of Massachusetts v. Leavitt
BOSTON - A federal court has granted attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund the right to intervene on behalf of Silver Ring Thing, an abstinence-based sex education program in danger of losing federal funding because of an ACLU lawsuit.
"ADF chose to represent SRT because the program offers kids the truth about the only certain way to avoid the destructive effects of premarital sex: abstinence," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. "We are continuing our fight to show SRT has not run afoul of the law and in fact never utilized funding for religious indoctrination or teaching, as the ACLU claims."
SRT's program encourages teenagers to sign a pledge of abstinence until marriage and to wear a silver ring as a reminder of their vow.
The ACLU of Massachusetts filed its lawsuit, ACLU of Massachusetts v. Leavitt, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts last month against federal officials in charge of funding sex education programs. The ACLU claims that funding provided by the federal government to SRT constitutes an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
According to the motion to intervene, SRT has a direct interest in the outcome of the case since the ACLU is challenging SRT's constitutional right to participate in government funding programs free from religious discrimination (www.telladf.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=3468).
"Time and time again, the effectiveness of abstinence-only education programs has been proven," Oster said. "The ACLU's continuing crusade to undermine programs which encourage teenagers to remain abstinent shows again their ethical shortcomings and an agenda which is beneficial to no one."
Oster clarified the facts about the recent decision of the Department of Health and Human Services with regard to funding for SRT: "HHS has asked SRT to clarify its guidelines to make sure that money is not spent inappropriately, but made no finding that money was spent inappropriately. HHS simply wants assurance that all guidelines will be met. SRT is working toward that end, as it always has."
ADF-allied attorneys Robert Kilroy and Mirick O'Connell of Westborough are local counsel in the case.
ADF is America's largest legal alliance defending religious liberty through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
www.telladf.org
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