Then:
A local faith-based abstinence education program is going national.
Thanks to a $700,000 federal grant, the Ohio Township-based Silver Ring Thing will be expanding to 75 other cities, including Boston, Minneapolis, and Columbia, S.C. The organization uses music videos and comedy skits to spread its abstinence message to adolescents.
...
Sen. Rick Santorum said the federal funding, "will assist schools medical facilities and community centers in educating the public on the benefits of sexual abstinence and related topics."
Now:
BOSTON -- The federal government has agreed to stop funding a Pennsylvania-based abstinence-only program for teens that a civil liberties group claimed was using federal dollars for Christian evangelization.
In the settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union, reached today, the Department of Health and Human Services agreed to stop funding the Silver Ring Thing program until it complies with laws forbidding federal dollars from funding religious activities.
The Silver Ring Thing, based in suburban Pittsburgh, is a nationwide program that uses music and comedy skits to promote premarital abstinence. The ACLU claimed in a May lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston that the program was crossing the line by using federal grant money to urge teens to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.
(thanks to reader m)