Can Jesus Christ make it in the world of herpes? More than $1 million dollars of federal funding since 2003 alone says it can. Marty Levine, News Editor of the Pittsburgh City Paper, gives a thorough and excellent report on the government-sponsored Silver Ring Thing abstinence program/Christian ministry founded by minister Denny Pattyn. (And also a peek at where Rick man-on-dog Santorum gets his information.) What little room for interpretation there was in the controversy over the proselytizing of an abstinence group in Louisiana seems absent from Silver Ring, which promotes abstinence with club-style shows featuring music, lighting, teen testimony and abstinence skits. After the shows, students are expected to buy the group’s signature Scripture-engraved silver chastity rings and “abstinence study Bible,” and the group’s website boasts that more than 4,400 students have found Jesus after a show.
Though the group now claims to offer a token “secular alternative” for students who want to hear about abstinence without hearing about Christianity, Silver Ring describes its mission as religious outreach to unchurched youth and Pattyn himself admitted that abstinence wasn’t the goal in itself, but faith. “‘Abstinence is the tool that we