http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060112/NEWS07/601120483/1009Social services' use of religion tests limits
U.S. found lacking in effort to watch the groups it funds
BY FRANK JAMES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
January 12, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Faith-based groups are barred from proselytizing or engaging in other obvious religious activity when using federal money to help substance abusers or to encourage teenagers to abstain from premarital sex.
But a number of groups may have run afoul of that federal prohibition.
Lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation accuse faith-based organizations and the government of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. Meanwhile, experts say the Bush administration is doing too little to monitor religious groups that get federal money.
Critics cite the Silver Ring Thing program that advocates sexual abstinence to teens. It's known for pulsing, high-tech, multimedia shows at which teenagers can buy silver rings to symbolize their pledges to avoid sex until marriage.
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Flint facility at center of Michigan case
After Joseph Hanas pleaded guilty to marijuana possession, a Genesee County Circuit Court judge gave the 23-year-old Grand Blanc man a choice: Agree to live for a year at Inner City Christian Outreach, a faith-based residential facility in Flint, or go to jail.Hanas chose Inner City, which is run by a Pentecostal church, and spent seven weeks there in 2003.
Hanas said staff members there told him his Catholic faith was witchcraft and prevented his priest from visiting him. And instead of getting substance-abuse treatment, Hanas said he was forced to read the Bible several hours each day, attend five hours of church on Sundays and told the only way he would successfully complete the program was to convert to the Pentecostal faith.
After three months, Judge Robert Ransom responded to Hanas' complaints by removing him and sending him to jail.
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