Government Cuts Off Funding for Faith-based Abstinence Programme

|TOP|Faith-based abstinence programme Silver Ring Thing was temporarily suspended from government funding last August in the US. But now, the funding will end altogether, due to oppositions coming from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The programme can be eligible to compete for federal grants in the future ‘only if it ensures that the money will not be used for religious purposes.’ The agreement between the Department of Health and Human Services and the ACLU was reached Feb. 22, according to the Associated Press.

''Public funds were being used to fund a road show, really, to convert teens to Christianity,'' said Julie Sternberg, an ACLU attorney.

She said the ACLU supports the program's right to offer religious content, but not with taxpayer money.

|AD|When the funding was suspended in August, Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said, “These programs have been proved not only ineffective, but also dangerous to the health and well-being of teens.”

Joel Oster, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, the group representing Silver Ring Thing in the lawsuit, wondered if Rose could possibly be serious in her assessment.

”Programmes like Silver Ring Thing have been proven to be effective,” he said. “Leave it to the ACLU to come to the absurd conclusion that abstinence programmes are dangerous to the health of teens.”

Silver Ring Thing received more than $1 million in federal funding during the past three years, but the ACLU complained that the rings teenagers receive when they pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage are inscribed with a Bible verse and the potential for Jesus to improve their lives is too often touted.

In its federal lawsuit in May, the ACLU expressed disapproval of the ring, which was inscribed with a Biblical verse exhorting Christians to remain holy and refrain from sexual sin.