The Silver Ring Thing UPDATE!

Back in May I posted a story about The Silver Ring Thing. Basically, it's a group that serves abstinence-only sex education with a suspiciously Evangelical Christian coating. Finally, yesterday, the Bush Administration suspended The Silver Ring Thing's federal grant saying that the organization is using tax money for religious activities. A big no no if we are to uphold the separation of Church and State.

In a letter to the program director, Harry Wilson, associate commissioner of the Family and Youth Services Bureau, concluded that the project funded with federal dollars "includes both secular and religious components that are not adequately safeguarded."

The action comes three months after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against HHS, accusing the administration of using tax dollars to promote Christianity. In documents filed in federal court in Boston, the ACLU alleged that the activities, brochures and Web site of Silver Ring Thing were "permeated with religion" and use "taxpayer dollars to promote religious content, instruction and indoctrination."

Julie Sternberg, senior staff attorney said, "It's improper for the federal government to underwrite a national roadshow designed to convert teenagers to a particular faith."