c. 2006 Religion News Service

Federal Agency Settles ACLU Suit Over Religious Abstinence Program

(RNS) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to stop funding an abstinence program that included religious elements.

The American Civil Liberties Union announced Thursday (Feb. 23) that the settlement had been reached between its lawyers and federal officials in a case involving the Silver Ring Thing in Moon Township, Pa.

“We are pleased that the government has agreed to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund the Silver Ring Thing’s religious activities,” said Julie Sternberg, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

“The ACLU supports the right of Silver Ring Thing to offer religious programming, but it may not do so using government funds.”

According to the settlement, HHS officials have agreed not to fund the abstinence education program of Silver Ring Thing as it was structured under the terms of a 2005 grant. If the Silver Ring Thing applies for additional grants between now and 2008, those officials have agreed to ensure that funding is not used for “inherently religious activities.”

The suit filed by the ACLU last May said the government had awarded more than $1 million in grants to Silver Ring Thing over a three-year period. HHS’ Family and Youth Services Bureau suspended funding of the program in August after concluding that “it appears that the federal project that is funded under the SRT grant includes both secular and religious components that are not adequately separated.”

Court papers described presentations that included students reciting an abstinence pledge and wearing a silver ring inscribed with a reference to Bible verses from 1 Thessalonians: “God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.”

At the time of the filing of the suit, the ministry issued a statement saying, “The Silver Ring Thing is aware of the proper designation of the federal funds received and asserts that these monies have been properly directed at all times.”

_ Adelle M. Banks

Could Charred Remains Be St. Joan of Arc’s?

PARIS (RNS) Nearly 700 years after the death of Joan of Arc, a French forensic team hopes a series of tests will prove whether charred fragments of skin and bones might be those of the 15th-century heroine.

Experts at the Raymond-Poincare hospital outside Paris have announced they would test tissue, including a blackened rib, that has been preserved through the centuries.

“We won’t learn much about Joan of Arc, apart from the type of wood used to burn her or the tissue of her gown _ if it’s really her,” the team’s head, Dr. Philippe Charlier, told French radio. “But we will be more or less certain _ or more or less uncertain _ if these really belong to her, whether these are her only and unique remains.”

The farm girl from Champagne helped mount a campaign against the British in Orleans, after she was said to have received messages from God that she would be France’s savior in the Hundred Years’ War. But Joan of Arc soon fell from grace, and was convicted of heresy and witchcraft in a politically motivated trial.

In 1431, two years after the Orleans campaign, the 19-year-old was burned at the stake no less than three times, Charlier said.

But just 25 years later, a French court declared her innocence in a “rehabilitation trial.” In 1909, Joan of Arc was beatified, and in 1920 made a saint.

The French scientists say they will not be able to prove without a doubt whether the remains are those of Joan of Arc. The burned fragments, said to have been found at the stake, were conserved by an apothecary and handed to the archdiocese of Tours in 1867.

But already local religious officials are casting doubt on the value of the upcoming research.

“How to prove that this piece of rib belonged to Joan of Arc? From a scientific point of view it seems extremely difficult if not impossible,” said Bertrand Vincent, spokesman for the Tours archdiocese, in a phone interview.

Even if the tests suggest the bones may have belonged to the French heroine, Vincent said, “it won’t change anything” as far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned.

“We need to be 100 percent certain (that the fragments belong to the saint) for the church to engage in an effort to get them considered a relic,” he added.

_ Elizabeth Bryant

Survey Says 40 Percent of British Muslims Want Islamic Law

LONDON (RNS) A newly published opinion poll suggests that 40 percent of Britain’s estimated 2 million Muslims want Islamic law, known as Shariah, introduced to their country.

The ICM polling organization’s survey for London’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper also said 20 percent of those surveyed sympathized with the “feelings and motives” of the Muslim suicide bombers who killed 52 people in four attacks on underground trains and a bus in London last July 7.

The results of the poll were printed in the wake of worldwide protests and violence about the publishing of 12 Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that “overall, the findings (of its survey) depict a Muslim community becoming more radical and feeling more alienated from mainstream society, even though 91 percent still say they feel loyal to Britain.”

It said that four in every 10 of the 500 Muslims interviewed believe Shariah should be introduced in “predominantly Muslim” areas of Britain. It added that half of those polled are convinced that relations between Muslims and white Britons are getting worse.

A spokesman for British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said “it is critically important to ensure that Muslims, and all faiths, feel part of modern British society,” but that the newspaper survey “indicates we still have a long way to go.”

_ Al Webb

One Out of Five Americans Consider Themselves Holy

(RNS) A new survey indicates that 21 percent of Americans consider themselves holy.

The survey, conducted by the Barna Research Group, also found that 73 percent of Americans believe that a person can become holy, regardless of his past, while half of those surveyed said they knew someone whom they considered holy.

The study also asked Americans to define holy. The largest category of respondents (21 percent) admitted they didn’t know how to. The highest number that had an idea said “being Christ-like” (19 percent), while 18 percent said “making faith your top priority.”

The survey’s director, Christian researcher George Barna, said that “the results portray a body of Christians who attend church but do not understand the concept or significance of holiness. … The challenge to the nation’s Christian ministries is to foster a genuine hunger for holiness among the masses who claim they love God but who are ignorant about biblical teachings regarding holiness.”

The Barna report was based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,003 adults during January. The margin of error for the survey is 3.2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

_ Nathan Herpich

Quote of the Day: `American Idol’ Contestant Mandisa Hundley

(RNS) “I figure that if Jesus could die so that all of my wrongs could be forgiven, I can certainly extend that same grace to you.”

_ “American Idol” contestant Mandisa Hundley, responding to judge Simon Cowell after he made a critical remark about her weight. The contestant, who prefers to be known as Mandisa, is a worship leader at Christian women’s conferences. Quoted by Baptist Press, she is a former employee of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn.

MO/PH END RNS