Gay couples in New Jersey will be allowed to apply for civil unions starting in February, but Attorney General Stuart Rabner has announced that clergy members are not required to perform such unions.
Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, said the decision was a relief for ministers who feared being charged with hate crimes for refusing to perform the ceremonies.
"This is good news," he told Family News in Focus. "There is definitely a separation on the law against discrimination and deeply held religious beliefs and convictions."
But Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, said pastors are not yet in the clear.
"To me, what's shaping up is, yes, they are not forced to by the law," he said, "but we will see the other side start to demonize and ostracize pastors that do not bless homosexual unions."
C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League, said the weight of the law will likely eventually come to bear.
"The whole tendency is once something is legalized, it moves from being simply a liberty or a right, so-called, to something that is required," he said. "This is something that is very dangerous."
Doyle also expressed concern about state officials who likewise don't want to participate in such ceremonies.
"Though it's gratifying that members of the clergy will not have to perform civil unions," he said. "It also raises the issue of what about the Justices of the Peace and Town Clerks who, in conscience, do not wish to participate in this."
