RNS
\nBy Robert Schwaneberg
\nLuisa Paster and Harriet Bernstein of Ocean Grove, N.J., say
\nthey were not trying to start a federal case when they complained last
\nmonth to the state’s civil rights agency.
\n“All that we were trying to accomplish was to have our civil union
\nin the boardwalk pavilion” in Ocean Grove, a popular seaside setting for
\nweddings in years past, Paster said.
\nBut a federal lawsuit is just what Paster and Bernstein provoked. It
\nwas filed as a pre-emptive strike by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting
\nAssociation, the Methodist group that owns the boardwalk pavilion.
\nThe Camp Meeting Association claims its constitutional rights would
\nbe violated if it were required to allow civil unions — which conflict
\nwith Methodist doctrine — to be performed at the pavilion, an
\nopen-sided structure it sometimes uses for religious worship.
\n“What’s at stake is really the autonomy of a religious
\norganization,” said Brian Raum, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense
\nFund, one of two conservative legal advocacy groups aiding the Camp
\nMeeting Association. “The government can’t force a private Christian
\norganization to use its property in a way that would violate its own
\nreligious beliefs.”
\nThe Camp Meeting Association owns all the land in Ocean Grove, a
\nnearly one-square-mile section of Neptune Township originally founded as
\na seaside religious retreat. Its homeowners lease their land from the
\ngroup.
\nThe lawsuit seeks a federal court order blocking J. Frank
\nVespa-Papaleo, the state director of civil rights, from enforcing state
\nanti-discrimination law against the Camp Meeting Association. That law’s
\nprotections were extended to couples who enter civil unions last
\nFebruary.
\nLee Moore, a spokesman for Vespa-Papaleo, called the lawsuit
\n“premature.”
\n“To date, the Division on Civil Rights has asserted nothing beyond
\nits right to initiate an investigation to determine whether there has
\nbeen a violation of the Law Against Discrimination,” Moore said. He
\nadded that the agency investigates about 1,300 complaints each year.
\nThe lawsuit claims Vespa-Papaleo has violated the Camp Meeting
\nAssociation’s constitutional rights “by subjecting this patently
\nreligious entity to an illegal investigation and threat of prosecution
\nunder the law.”
\n“This case is not about whether civil unions should be allowed,”
\nRaum said. “It’s about whether the government should force a private
\norganization to endorse the message of civil unions.”
\nCopyright 2007 Religion News Service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RNS By Robert Schwaneberg Luisa Paster and Harriet Bernstein of Ocean Grove, N.J., say they were not trying to start a federal case when they complained last month to the state’s civil rights agency. “All that we were trying to accomplish was to have our civil union in the boardwalk pavilion” in Ocean Grove, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n