I didn't know where to post this, thought this would be a good place. I don't know what to do about it. I'm angry, but not exactly sure why. It's another way of trying to win new Christians over, starting in our schools.

This whole Christians vs Pagans thing has been on my mind a lot and it's driving me nuts. Do Christians feel like it's their duty to annoy and scare the crap out of Pagans? Do they -REALLY- feel like they have to butt into other people's lives and tell them what to believe in?

If I wanted to do something similar but have it be in the name of another god/organization, I'd be burned at the stake before I step foot on school grounds.



ACLU-The lawsuit says youths are given the opportunity to divide into secular
and religious groups, but are encouraged to choose the religious option and
to enroll in a Bible-based follow-up program.

"I think SRT is really great because it gets people to know what God has to
say about sex. Before . . . I just thought that it was ok; I didn't even know
that it was wrong before you were married. " -Katie, 12

The "Silver Ring Thing" program encourages young people to make a covenant
with God to wait until marriage before having sex

Founder Dennis Pattyn says the program attempts to answer the main question
kids are contemplating today: If I make a decision like this -- to be
abstinent -- why be left alone and be considered "out of it" in my school?

"The way we have addressed that is to do our program in large numbers, with
many, many kids coming from the secular world as well as the Christian
world," Pattyn explains. "So we designed our program to reached 'un-churched'
kids in large numbers."

The ministry is hoping to further expand its influence across the country now
that it has received a $700,000 grant from the government. Pattyn says

SRT has created a 12-step follow-up plan.

TWELVE STEPS
SRT Bible - abstinence study Bible with support material specific to students.
The Bible is to be used for personal inspiration and is the basis of ongoing
group bible studies.

A Faith Decision - in accepting the ring, the student accepts the reason for
wearing it. The ring is worn because the student understands that God has a
plan for his or her life, and a plan for his or her sexuality. When the
decision is faith based, the student knows that they are never alone.

A Youth Group - Every student who attends an SRT event is invited to become
active in a local youth group.

One-on-One With a Youth Leader - SRT encourages the student to establish a
one-on-one relationship with an appropriate youth leader.

The mission is to saturate the United States with a generation of young people
who have taken a vow of sexual abstinence until marriage and put on the
silver ring. This mission can only be achieved by offering a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ as the best way to live a sexually pure
life."1 During the pledging ceremony, participants have the opportunity to
make a covenant with God regarding their decision to remain abstinent.

The John Guest Evangelistic Team, the parent organization responsible for SRT,
works domestically "...to communicate the message of Jesus Christ to the
unchurched through creative, media-based and one-onone evangelism."2

The establishment clause of the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution
prohibits programs from using federal funds to promote specific religious
beliefs. Nonetheless, the Silver Ring Thing receives significant funding from
the U.S. government, totaling $1.1 million over the past two years.3 Still,
SRT continues to deliver an explicitly religious message. Silver Ring Thing
founder Dennis Pattyn told the Agape Press, "The enemy certainly is out there
wanting to destroy the work--and sometimes the enemy is actually the church
itself, unbelievably--but we're having to be much more careful about how we
operate. We don't ever want to take the gospel [out] of our message because
we believe the power for abstinence is a changed heart, not a ring on a
finger." Pattyn estimates that 20 percent of participants who receive the
silver ring also choose to "give their lives over to Christ."

There is no evidence that The Silver Ring Thing or similar
abstinence-only-until-marriage programs reduce rates of unintended pregnancy
or sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, virginity pledges are undermining
the use of contraception and disease-prevention methods among teens,
potentially exposing them to greater harm. Researchers found that under
limited circumstances virginity pledges helped young people delay the onset
of sexual intercourse for an average of 18 months (a goal still far short of
the average age of marriage). However, the study also found that those young
people who took a pledge were one-third less likely to use contraception when
they did become sexually active than their peers who had not pledged.10 The
same researchers have further concluded that young people who take virginity
pledges have the same rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as young
people who do not pledge abstinence.11 Their data also shows that in
communities where there are too many pledgers (over 20%), overall STD rates
were significantly higher than in other settings.

The programs are expanding at an alarming rate and it is important that both
program providers and policy professionals remember that these types of
programs offer marriage as the exclusive method of preventing unintended
pregnancy and STD infection, as well as the only morally correct choice. "The
evidence domestically shows that these types of programs may be harmful to
young people's ability to make healthy decisions about their own sexuality.
Now these unproven programs are being exported world wide, supported by the
Bush Administration's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief," said
William Smith, director of public policy for SIECUS. He continued, "We cannot
fight HIV/AIDS with either condoms or abstinence. This is not a one or the
other situation. This is about providing all people with the comprehensive
sexual health information, services, technologies, and skills they need to
prevent the transmission of HIV."