Jersey Judge Denies Religious Freedom

Did anyone expect the kangaroo court of the state civil rights division to come up with anything but discrimination? And it looks like it's been about 4 years. They practice bullying people into submission by agony of court proceedings. After the appeal to the civil rights board, it can finally go to a real court and real law be applied. Of course, that'll probably take years too. People who are willing to fight these oppressive cases should be regarded as heroes by the rest of us. By their suffering through the courts, we win our rights to freedom.

A ministry that follows the dictates of its faith is engaging in wrongdoing, according to a New Jersey judge who recommended today that the state Division on Civil Rights find the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association violated the state’s nondiscrimination law.
“The respondent violated the [Law Against Discrimination] when it refused to conduct a civil-union ceremony for Ms. Bernstein and Ms. Paster,” wrote Solomon Metzger, an administrative law judge whose determination will become final if not overturned by the Division of Civil Rights.

“Respondent opposes same-sex unions as a matter of religious belief, and in 2007 found itself on the wrong side of recent changes in the law.”
The seaside location has been popular for years for weddings, but the association, which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, determined it could not biblically allow same-sex ceremonies to take place on its property.
So when Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster signed up for such a ceremony, they were turned down. They filed the discrimination complaint, and the state’s Division on Civil Rights joined their cause.
“The government should not be able to force a private Christian organization to use its property in a way that would violate its own religious beliefs,” said Jim Campbell, a litigation staff counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund.
“Religious groups have the right to use their private property in a way that is consistent with their beliefs. That right, protected by both the New Jersey and U.S. constitutions, obviously trumps any law enacted by the state’s legislature.”
ADF, which represented the ministry, said would it consider the next step in the case, but its argument is that the ministry is exercising its constitutionally protected right to use its private property in a way consistent with its beliefs.
The women made their request in 2007, and the association declined because such an event would have violated its religious convictions.

Full Article...