nc/sd February 2012 — Good News, etc. — 5 issues A series of lawsuits and a new court


ruling are fresh examples of how laws granting marriage benefits to gay couples can end up squashing religious liberty, says a Christian attorney involved in one of the cases. All four cases involve states with gay “marriage” or same-sex civil union laws: Illinois, Vermont, Hawaii, and New Jersey. In Vermont and Illinois, bed and breakfast owners were sued for declining to host a same-sex ceremony or reception, and in Hawaii, a bed and breakfast owner was sued after turning away a lesbian couple who wanted to make a reservation. In New Jersey, a state judge ruled Jan.


12 that a Christian beachfront property operated by United Methodists violated state non-discrimination laws when it refused to host a lesbian couple’s civil union ceremony. Jim Campbell, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund — which is repre- senting the Methodist group — said the cases prove that there is harm to religious liberty when states legalize gay “marriage” or civil unions or pass broad legislation incorporating sexual orientation into non-


New Heights . . . Continued from page 1


ager Mark Williams (no relation). Other Friday Night Heights attendees can enjoy an evening of games for just $10. Christian bands from all over San Diego volunteer to wrap up each event with a concert. At the gospel presentation that followed the Jan. 6 concert by the local River Band and 180 OUT from Philadelphia, two boys from the shelter trusted Christ as their Savior. “We worship right next to miniature golfers,” said Williams. “We did an altar call right next to golfers. The manager is willing to take a risk that his clients will hear a Christian message going on while their kids are golfing.” Showing the love of Jesus is what makes


Friday Night Heights special for 24-year- old “big brother” Silver Garza. “They get told ‘Jesus loves you,’ but it’s really cool to be God’s hands and feet to show them God’s love, not just tell them about it,” he said. Garza enjoys sharing the power of prayer


with the kids. He asks their needs, assuring them God is with them and listening. Garza also shares Scriptures and life experiences with older kids. Like them, he suffered homelessness in North County — sleeping in the car, under freeway overpasses and in carwashes, with his mom and siblings. A believer since age 14, Garza has


helped plant churches in Haiti and more than 17 in unreached areas in Africa. His desire to train church leaders grew when he saw African pastors who had been reading the Bible for only a week. To prepare, Garza and his wife, Brenda,


who attend The River Family Church in Vista, will leave soon to attend Calvary Chapel Bible College in Jerusalem, where their first child also will be born. “Big brother” 19-year-old Escondido


resident John DeRouen also shares Christ’s love with the homeless children. “Knowing you can help somebody is the most amaz-


ing feeling in the world,” said DeRouen, who has attended Summit Church in San Marcos since he was 2. DeRouen’s sister, Jasmine Dacon, 16, also helps at Friday Night Heights. Another young man from Summit


Church, Jagger Hansen, identifies with Friday Night Heights kids because he was homeless, too, and his mom left when he was 11. “We bond with the kids and try to share


the gospel,” said the 24-year-old San Mar- cos resident. “We let them be kids. They’re facing hard things. We plant seeds. To see them light up is a wonderful, amazing thing. God told us to disciple people and spread his Word and that’s what we’re doing. Children are key. They are one of the most important things. We’re not doing anything more than what He told us to.” Hansen tells kids they are too good for


drugs and have more going on for them- selves, especially since they are coming to God so young. “We try to express God’s love to them, how much He cares for them, no matter where they’re coming from,” he said. “I tell them being homeless doesn’t mean they’re forgotten. It just means greater triumph. … I tell them, ‘He’s going to bring you out. This is just the starting point, just the launching.’ ” Melinda Day, who helped lead Hansen to


the Lord last July through Summit Church, said she absolutely loves being a “big sis- ter.” “It’s tons of fun,” said the 20-year-old San Marcos resident. “God is definitely moving in that. … They’re just super excited and willing and open to God.” Even kids who are closed off by their


pain open up, connect and see themselves as part of a community. One young boy was too upset for Day to talk to him. “Something touched him with the music,” she remembered. “It was a worship song and he was able to let go and have fun


Please turn to page 20


“… Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed… ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord…”


– Isaiah 1: 16-18 (NIV) Liberty takes hit in multiple gay ‘marriage’ lawsuits in different states


discrimination laws. “When people hear that their legislature


is considering a law like this and they think, ‘What’s the harm?’ they need to realize that there is this direct threat to religious liberty — to business owners, employees, religious entities and people who attend all those religious entities,” Campbell told Baptist Press. “These four cases are a good demonstration of that. People who are concerned about religious liberty should be concerned about these legal devel- opments.” The New Jer-


union ceremony in a pavilion at the prop- erty. The women filed a complaint with the state’s Division on Civil Rights, claiming the association had violated state law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or civil union status. The state ruled against the Methodist


sey case involved the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting As- sociation, a beachfront property whose stated mission is to “provide opportunities for spiritual birth, growth, and renewal in a Christian seaside setting.” By charter, the association’s board must


“… an easy path to a lawsuit against religious groups or business owners with strongly held religious beliefs.”


property, and a judge on Jan. 12 upheld that ruling. The judge, Solomon Metzger, said that under a real estate tax exemption that benefited Ocean Grove, the property had to be “open for public use on an equal basis.” New Jersey had legalized civil unions in 2006 un- der court order.


Campbell said the tax exemption did


not require public accommodation to the extent the judge ruled. “Ocean Grove has always held the pa-


consist of 10 United Methodist clergy and 10 non-clergy who also are United Methodist. In 2007, association officials turned away a request by a lesbian couple to host a civil


vilion open to the public for recreational use when they are not otherwise using the pavilion for their own events,” Campbell said. “For instance, if the pavilion is open and a member of the public walks by, they’re welcome to come, sit inside, enjoy the scenery, take a break and just sit down on the benches. ... But what it does not require and what Ocean Grove has never represented is that the pavilion would be open for all activities or events that any individual would want to hold.”


Colson . . . Continued from page 4


that produced the habits and customs that made their political experiment possible. Not simply because it taught people right from wrong but because of what it taught us about who we are and why we were placed on Earth. Whatever else you can say about the


people who created America — for whom there were only six planets, including Earth — they certainly weren’t lonely or lacking in purpose. It’s modern Western man, for whom


the universe literally grows bigger every day, who feels increasingly lonely and


pointless. Instead of wonder, his response is apathy. That’s because he has confused science,


which is the knowledge of nature obtained through observation, with scientism, which is the “reduction of all knowledge to only that which is measurable.” This confusion has left him, as Percy


would put it, “lost in the Cosmos,” waiting by a phone that is unlikely to ring.


Yes, worldviews do matter. ❏


Chuck Colson is president of Prison Fellow-


ship. He is a radio commentator, speaker and author. Reprinted with permission.


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The bed and breakfast cases involve owners with religious objections to gay “marriage” or civil unions: • Workers with the Wildflower Inn in


Lyndonville, Vt., told a lesbian couple in 2010 that the property could not host a same-sex “wedding” reception, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit the next year. Gay “marriage” is legal in the state. • In Illinois last year, just months after


a civil union law went into effect, two bed and breakfasts turned down requests by two men to host their civil union ceremony. The ACLU of Illinois is representing the men in a suit claiming discrimination. The businesses are the Beall Mansion in Alton and the Timber Creek Bed and Breakfast in Paxton. • In Hawaii, the Aloha Bed and Breakfast


was sued by Lambda Legal after the busi- ness chose not to provide a reservation to a lesbian couple. The Alliance Defense Fund is involved in the Illinois and Hawaii cases. All of the states have laws prohibiting discrimination in public accommodation based on sexual orientation. Those laws, coupled with the legalization of gay “mar- riage” or civil unions, provide an easy path to a lawsuit against religious groups or business owners with strongly held religious beliefs, Campbell said.


– Baptist Press


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