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CNSNEWS.COM
Cybercast News Service
Ministry Sues to Keep
Same-Sex Ceremonies
Out of Its Facility
By Randy Hall,
cnsnews.com from the Web, August 21, 2007
A Methodist group that refuses to let
homosexuals hold civil union ceremonies at one of its retreat facilities is
suing New Jersey officials to prevent the state from forcing the church to
violate its religious beliefs.
Civil union ceremonies are specifically prohibited by the doctrines of the
United Methodist Church, even though the State of New Jersey granted legal
status to civil unions last February.
A Methodist church retreat in Ocean Grove, N.J. -- called the Camp Meeting
Association (OGCMA) -- filed a federal lawsuit last week against the New Jersey
Division on Civil Rights, after government officials threatened to prosecute the
OGMCA for turning down requests by three same-sex couples who wanted to conduct
civil union ceremonies at a pavilion owned by the Ocean Grove facility.
"Ocean Grove is legitimately acting to defend itself against a potentially
intrusive arm of a state government that may try to override church policies in
the name of 'tolerance,'" said Mark Tooley, director of UMAction, a group that
defends traditional Christian beliefs and practices in the spirit of John
Wesley, the father of Methodism.
"This matter is not just about same-sex unions," said Tooley. "It is about
the freedom of a religious organization to uphold its own beliefs and establish
policies for its own property."
"Religious groups have the right to make their own decisions without government
interference," agreed Brian Raum, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense
Fund, which is representing the Camp Meeting Association.
"[T]he Division on Civil Rights ... has violated the Plaintiff's First Amendment
rights by subjecting this patently religious entity to an illegal investigation
and threat of prosecution under the law," the lawsuit states.
According to the complaint, the investigation "is causing a substantial burden
on, and chilling of," the Camp Meeting Association's "rights to unfettered
religious expression, association and free exercise of religion."
The ADF argues that the Camp Meeting Association's pavilion -- an open-air
wooden structure on Ocean Grove's boardwalk -- and other buildings on the site
have hosted church and worship services for more than 100 years.
However, the pavilion is usually open to the public and it has no religious
markings. Other denominations' worship services often are held there, as
are organized secular events, such as concerts, debates and civil war
re-enactments.
That has prompted Ocean Grove United, a group of area residents and business
owners formed to combat the OCGMA on this matter, to claim that, given its
multiple civic and religious uses, the pavilion is a place of "public
accommodation" under the state's anti-discrimination law -- and therefore, civil
union ceremonies must be allowed.
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa
Paster applied in March to use the pavilion for their civil union ceremony,
which was planned for September. The Methodist organization rejected their
application and later told Bernstein in an email that it did not allow civil
unions to be held in the pavilion.
"In an apparent distortion of the First Amendment, they are claiming that they
have the right to discriminate against people who do not share their religious
tenets," Bernstein replied.
The women then filed a complaint under the New Jersey Law Against
Discrimination, which states that entities which "offer goods, services and
facilities to the general public" are prohibited from "directly or indirectly
denying or withholding any accommodation, service, benefit or privilege to an
individual" on the basis of sexual orientation.
In response, the ADF said New Jersey is still subject to the First Amendment,
and state statutes that limit liberties guaranteed by the Constitution must be
overturned.
Nevertheless, Lee Moore, a spokesman for the New Jersey attorney general,
described the ADF lawsuit as "premature" since the division hasn't come to any
conclusion about the case.
"To date, the Division on Civil Rights has asserted nothing beyond its right to
initiate an investigation to determine whether there has been a violation of the
law against discrimination," Moore said in a news release.
But Raum countered that the state should have "refused to entertain a complaint
against a religious organization" and should have told the couple that filed it
that the law against discrimination doesn't apply under these circumstances.
"Whenever the state investigates, they inherently affect your right to operate
as you normally would," he added. "There's a stigma attached to an
investigation. Anytime you investigate, people assume you've done
something wrong.
"This is the kind of state interference Thomas Jefferson warned against when he
referred to the 'separation of church and state' in his letter to the Danbury
Baptists," Raum said.
Tooley from the UMAction agreed. "Not just United Methodists, but all
persons concerned about religious and civil liberty should speak out in defense
of the Ocean Grove Camp [Meeting] Association," he stated.
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