A Methodist ministry at the Jersey Shore has sued the state, accusing the Attorney General's Office of trying to compel the group to allow gay civil union ceremonies in its boardwalk pavilion. The federal lawsuit, filed on Saturday by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, is the latest salvo in a case that's drawing statewide attention from gay rights advocates and religious conservatives. "Religious groups have the right to make their own decisions without government interference," Brian W. Raum, lawyer for the association, said in a statement Monday. "The government can't force a private Christian organization to use its property in a way that would violate its own religious beliefs."

The Division on Civil Rights initiated an investigation into the association after two lesbians complained that the association refused to rent them the oceanfront pavilion for a civil union ceremony. State officials, however, said the federal lawsuit is premature because the division hasn't made any findings, said spokesman Lee Moore. "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 [New Jersey] Law Against Discrimination," Moore said. "By statute, it is the division's duty to investigate any charges of discrimination filed with it."

One gay activist said it was particularly galling that the camp meeting association enlisted the Alliance Defense Fund for the suit – an Arizona-based Christian law firm that represents religious conservatives nationwide. "By enlisting a radical anti-gay legal group, the camp meeting association has declared war not only on the gay community but on the progressive values of New Jersey," said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality. "We're not going to take it."

But a conservative activist in Bergen County said the gay community is spoiling for a court battle and deliberately targeted the camp meeting association. "They see this as an incremental step to gay marriage," said Seriah Rein, a Glen Rock resident and chairwoman of the Council on the American Family. "It also gets them a lot of publicity." John Tomicki, a veteran conservative activist, agreed.

"The individuals who were seeking a wedding are trying to make a legal point, said Tomicki, of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage. "It's done for publicity, not done for having a civil union ceremony." The Camp Meeting Association, founded in 1869 as a Christian ministry, says it owns and controls all the property in Ocean Grove -- just south of Asbury Park in Monmouth County -- including the beachfront and the boardwalk pavilion. When a lesbian couple tried this year to rent the pavilion for a Sept. 30 civil union ceremony, the association cited United Methodist policy that opposes homosexual unions and refused.

The couple, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster of Ocean Grove, filed a complaint with the civil rights division, as did another gay couple turned down by the association. Fearing prosecution, the association stopped renting the pavilion for heterosexual weddings. The association maintains that it's a private, church property and doesn't have to recognize New Jersey's law allowing civil unions. "The Camp Meeting Association has a distinct religious mission ... and does not wish to endorse same-sex civil unions," the suit says.

But Goldstein said the pavilion has been so widely used by the public that it's essentially a public accommodation open to everyone. "For decades, the camp meeting association has allowed the public to use the property without restrictions," Goldstein said. "This is a huge slap in the face to the gay community which has been front and center in the Ocean Grove revitalization."

>>>For decades, the camp meeting association has allowed the public to use the property without restrictions,” <<<

In other words, don’t be nice to people, or they’ll try to steal your stuff.

Homosexuals and their pathetic excuses for marriages. I’ve been to hundreds of gay establishments back when I lived with gay roommates. There is nothing that goes on in those places that remotely resembles monogamy. Not even close.

Civil unions fight brewing in Ocean Grove

Dozens of people are gathered in a historic inn in Ocean Grove this evening to show support for a lesbian couple who were denied access to a local pavilion when they tried to rent the church-owned facility for their civil union ceremony. The 7:30 p.m. meeting and potluck dinner was organized by Ocean Grove United, a newly-formed community group fighting a decision by the local Methodist Camp Meeting Association to bar the lesbian couple from holding their celebration on church property. "Because this is a harmonious town we were really put off by what seems to be blatant discrimination," said Joan Caputo, chairwoman of the new group. "Our sense of it is the way to change things is to reach out into the town, get their support and have them demonstrate their support."

The issue has been brewing in town since earlier this year when local residents Luisa Pasteur and Harriet Bernstein asked the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to use the boardwalk pavilion for a summer civil union ceremony.The Methodist association -- which bought this one-square-mile of prime oceanfront in 1870 as a place to worship in a "proper, convenient and desirable Christian seaside setting"-- turned down the Pasteur-Bernstein request. The women filed a complaint with the state civil rights agency. But before the matter could be resolved by a state mediator, the Camp Meeting Association filed a pre-emptive lawsuit. Standing on the inn's porch before this evening's meeting, Pasteur and Bernstein said they were overwhelmed by turnout by local residents, politicians and gay and lesbian activists from around the state. "Ocean Grove is a loving community where neighbors look out for each other and support each other," said Bernstein, 65. "We simply want (the Methodists) to relent and allow same sex couples to use the same facilities they have allowed straight couples to use."

Though members of the Methodist group were invited to the meeting, none were expected to attend. The Rev. Scott Hoffman, the Camp Meeting Association's chief administrative officer, said the federal lawsuit does not signal a backlash against gays -- who are credited with helping transform Ocean Grove from a rundown resort to its original Victorian splendor. "We are not trying to be divisive and we defend everybody's right to live in Ocean Grove," Hoffman said in a phone interview from Pennsylvania, where he was attending a funeral.

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