Reinforcing the Wall Between Church and State

A few months ago, I wrote about a segment on 60 Minutes exploring faith-based abstinence-only sex education. One of the groups featured in that broadcast was Silver Ring Thing. Silver Ring Thing was apparently so successful in passing on its abstinence-only message that the government started sponsoring it with federal grants. Those grants were suspended yesterday, though, when the Department of Health and Human Services discovered that the faith-based program was--who'da thunk it?--proselytizing. (If this were a multimedia blog, I'd be cuing Claude Raines just about now). Presumably, if HHS determines that Silver Ring Thing provides "adequate safeguards to clearly separate in time or location inherently religious activities from the federally funded activities," they can get the money back. If you ask me, we’re just better off going back to the Constitution and keeping Church separate from State.