New Jersey is dragging out the big guns. Apparently the almighty tax-exemption is now at risk for NJ Christian organizations who refuse to accommodate homosexual behavior...Faithfulness is going to start costing us more than public criticism.
From "U.S. Christian Camp Loses Tax-Exempt Status over Same-Sex Civil-Union Ceremony" posted 9/19/07 by John Jalsevac at Lifesite.org
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced on Monday that it was stripping the Methodist Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association of its tax-exempt status for part of its property. The Methodist camp made the news earlier this year after it refused, for religious reasons, to allow a lesbian couple to hold a "civil-union" ceremony at a pavilion on the camp's property.
The pavilion, said Scott Hoffman, the camp's chief administrative officer to LifeSiteNews, "is a facility we have used exclusively for our camp meeting mission and worship celebrations since 1869."
Until recently the camp held tax-exempt status on its entire boardwalk property under a New Jersey program that gives tax-breaks to organizations that open up their property to the general public.
In June, however, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Pester, a lesbian, filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office on the basis of sexual orientation discrimination, after Ocean Grove refused to allow them to hold their "civil-union" ceremony at the camp's pavilion. A second lesbian couple has also sued Ocean Grove. New Jersey's anti-discrimination laws currently forbid those who "offer goods, services, and facilities to the general public" from "directly or indirectly denying or withholding any accommodation, service, benefit, or privilege to an individual" on the basis of sexual orientation.
"It is clear that the pavilion is not open to all persons on an equal basis," DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, wrote to the camp on Monday, in announcing the DEP's decision to revoke the camp's tax-exempt status.
Read the rest of this story.
No. You are right. It's private property, remember? Can I come hold a worship service on your front lawn Ms. Jackson?
If they can punish one group for standing against homosexual behavior they can and eventually WILL punish ALL groups who refuse to validate homosexual behavior - including churches. Government has many means with which it can try to force Christian organizations to approve (at least publicly) of homosexual behavior: lawsuits, licensing, accreditation and the almighty tax exemption are among them. If loss of tax-exemption is thought to be fair game for refusing to accommodate homosexuality, many churches and Christian ministries will not be able to afford to keep their property.
I always wonder why homosexuals are so bent on forcing EVERYONE to validate their behavior. Public opinion polls show that about half the nation already agrees with them and the other half are generally older and will eventually pass away. If they are really sure homosexual behavior is moral, why do they care what we do, say or think?
But alas, I know the answer. They are not sure homosexual behavior IS right. God has equipped us all, including homosexual activists, with a conscience. The mere fact that Bible-believing Christians still believe that homosexual behavior is sinful stirs the conscience so many are trying to ignore...God's Law is like a mirror showing us our need for redemption.
Our message does not make them unsafe or unequal. It makes them uncomfortable. And ironically, for all their talk of tolerance, they have no tolerance for that at all...
