Settling a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has agreed to suspend funding of a nonprofit accused of using taxpayer dollars to present religious messages in a federally-funded sexual abstinence program.

Under the terms of the settlement, reached on Feb. 23, HHS has agreed to withhold the $75,000 grant it made to Silver Ring Thing (SRT), a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit that runs faith-based sexual abstinence education programs for teens across the country. SRT will not be eligible for any more federal funding unless it changes its program to ensure the money is not used for religious purposes.

As part of the settlement, HHS agreed to continued suspension of the current grant and quarterly monitoring of SRT by HHS to ensure future compliance with any grant requirements. Additionally, any grant requests made by SRT must include a complete description of proposed program activities, what actions they will take to comply with the HHS guidelines, and how the federal funds will be spent and accounted for. If SRT is given a federal grant, or a congressional earmark - most of its federal moneys have come through earmarks requested by Sens. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Arlen Spector (R-PA) - the ACLU is to be notified by HHS. The settlement agreement expires Sept. 30, 2008.

In May 2005, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against HHS, accusing the department of allowing SRT to use federal funds for primarily religious purposes. The suit charged the nonprofit violated the First Amendment because the federally funded abstinence program was not adequately segregated from its religious program. Specifically, the ACLU said the group's high-tech, three-hour road show - paid for with federal funds - provided Bibles and silver rings with religious messages for teens to wear as a token of their pledge of chastity until marriage.

Three months after the suit was filed, HHS suspended funding for the program. In a Sept. 20, 2005 letter to SRT, HHS stated misgivings that "the federal project that is funded ... includes both secular and religious components that are not adequately separated." HHS asked SRT to submit a Corrective Action Plan in order to receive the remaining grant funds.

That letter included six steps SRT needed to take to separate government-funded activities from religious activities:

• Separate and Distinct Programs: There must be separate and distinct programs for religious and secular instructions and teachings, and the distinction must be clear to the consumer. This could be achieved by creating different and distinct names and promotional materials, and promoting only the federally funded parts of the programs with federal money.

   

• Separate Presentations: Presentations must be separated by time or location. The presentation could be held in "completely different sites or on completely different days." HHS clarified that if the programs are held on the same site but at different times, there should be sufficient time to end one program before the other begins, and participants should be dismissed from one program before beginning another. If the programs are held at the same time but at different locations on the same site, there should be separate registrations, and separate rooms should be divided by floors or hallways.

   

• Religious Materials: Eliminate all materials with religious content from the federally funded abstinence program.

   

• Cost Allocation: Federal money is only to be used for federal programs. This should be demonstrated using time sheets to tally staff hours, particularly when employees work in both the religious and secular programs. If employees work on both programs on the same day at the same site, they must clearly account for their hours worked in each program. Cost allocation should be shown for all staff time, equipment and travel. For example, if secular and religious traveling programs are presented at the same site on the same day, the costs must be split between federal and private money.

   

• Advertisements: Federally funded programs cannot advertise the grant program services only to religious target populations.

   

• Invitation to Religious Program: At the end of a federally-funded program, participants may be invited to attend another religious abstinence education program. But the invitation must be "brief and non-coercive" and make clear that it is a separate and voluntary program.

   

Federal regulations require that faith-based organizations provide religious programs at a separate time and/or location from publicly funded programs. With the inclusion of the required "safeguards" in the settlement documents, HHS has provided the first clear guidance in what constitutes adequate separation.

SRT may apply for new federal grants, although SRT founder Dennis Pattyn says the organization will not be doing so. If the nonprofit does apply for additional federal funds, it will be required to demonstrate how it will be separating its religious message from its federally funded abstinence program.