c. 2006 Religion News Service

Same-Sex Couples in New Jersey Get Marriage Without the Name

(RNS) New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill Thursday (Dec. 21) that will give those in same-sex civil unions “all of the same benefits, protections and responsibilities” the state confers on married couples.

“Through our actions today, we will provide equal rights for same-sex couples,” Corzine said. He called enactment of the legislation “one of the most important steps we can take” to provide “equal justice under law.”

The law takes effect Feb. 19.

The new law is intended to meet a mandate from the New Jersey Supreme Court, which in October ordered lawmakers to either allow same-sex couples to marry or give them all the benefits of marriage under another name. Legislative leaders chose civil unions, explaining that political support for gay marriage does not yet exist.

Sen. Loretta Weinberg predicted that within five years, “these rights for same-sex couples will be known, as they should, under the banner of marriage.”

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts said marriage equality “needs to be our goal” but it would be “a huge mistake” to bemoan the state’s failure to provide it now.

“Today is a giant step forward,” Roberts said.

“This is truly an historic day,” added Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, the state’s first openly gay lawmaker. “The distance between nothing and civil unions is greater than the distance between civil unions and marriage.”

New Jersey becomes the third state, after Vermont and Connecticut, to allow civil unions. Only Massachusetts allows couples of the same sex to marry.

Corzine, while not endorsing same-sex marriage, did not rule it out.

“I would sign a bill that labeled it `marriage,’ but that is not where my personal views are because I was brought up in the context of religious beliefs that would define marriage as between a man and a woman,” Corzine said.

But John Tomicki, president of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage, said Corzine’s statements made it clear “that this was never about benefits. It’s about same-sex marriage.”

_ Robert Schwaneberg and Deborah Howlett

New Muslim Lawmaker Responds to Criticism From Congressman

(RNS) Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, who became the first Muslim elected to Congress in November, is urging Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., to take part in an interfaith dialogue after Goode told constituents that Muslims threaten American values.

“I would urge Congressman Goode to have his congregation reach out to a synagogue or a mosque and start some interfaith dialogue so we can increase understanding among each other, as Americans of different faiths,” Ellison said on CNN Thursday (Dec. 21).

Ellison’s decision to use a Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in has sparked outrage among conservatives.

Goode, a Baptist, rejected suggestions that he was a racist and said people should read his letter, which he said responds to constituents’ concerns about Ellison’s swearing-in.

“The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran,” Goode wrote in his Dec. 7 letter.

“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America,” Goode wrote.

Ellison, 43, was born in Detroit and raised Catholic. He converted to Islam while a student at Wayne State University and became a lawyer before being elected to Congress.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Interfaith Alliance and the Council on American-Islamic Relations were among the groups that criticized Goode.

“To suggest Muslims should be viewed with fear, based solely on their faith, demonizes millions of people living in our communities,” said David C. Friedman of the Anti-Defamation League.

The United States Immigration Reform Political Action Committee said it supports Goode.

“What is wrong with the congressman sending a message that there is a problem within Islam _ and that until the radical wing of that major religion stops threatening and attacking the United States and the West we should end illegal immigration and have a moratorium on Muslim immigration?” said the group’s spokesman, Phil Kent.

_ Omar Sacirbey

Americans’ Perceptions of Bethlehem at Odds With Facts, Survey Says

(RNS) American perceptions of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, are at variance with the facts, according to a new survey commissioned by a campaign to draw attention to the city’s problems.

Only 26 percent of Americans know that Bethlehem is a Palestinian city within the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to a survey conducted by pollsters Zogby International for the group Open Bethlehem. Nearly 60 percent of those polled thought Bethlehem was in Israel.

The poll also found that 59 percent of those surveyed thought Bethlehem’s population was either Muslim or Jewish or a mixture of both. Only 15 percent knew Bethlehem’s population is actually a mixture of Muslims and Christians, according to Open Bethlehem, an organization trying to keep international focus on the city and the need to preserve its distinct religious heritage.

The organization is among numerous groups trying to stop the flow of Palestinian Christians out of Bethlehem and the West Bank because of deteriorating economic and political conditions. Those problems are caused, advocates said, by Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the separation barrier Israel has constructed. Israeli officials have defended the barrier as a security measure in the face of terror attacks and continued political instability.

The survey of 15,000 Americans also found that Americans’ perceptions of Bethlehem and its current context are “wildly at odds” with the perceptions of Bethlehem residents, who were polled in a separate survey by the Palestinian Center for Research and Cultural Dialogue.

While 78 percent of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem surveyed blame the current exodus of Christians from Bethlehem on the separation barrier and other Israeli measures, almost 46 percent of Americans are likely to blame the exodus on Islamic extremism. Slightly more than 7 percent say the problem is caused by Israeli policies.

Leila Sansour, Open Bethlehem’s chief executive, said she was encouraged that Americans opposed to the separation barrier expressed concern that it “hurts the life of communities regardless of their faith or ethnic background.”

“This is how we want to think of ourselves,” she said. “Our community has embraced diversity for centuries.”

_ Chris Herlinger

Quote of the Day: `Creators of the Baby Jesus Chronicles’

(RNS) “We have done the best possible job we could to keep the baby Jesus safe and in loving arms. During the course of the last eight months, the baby Jesus has become more to us than simply a plastic religious figurine.”

_ A portion of a message left on the doorstep of a North Buffalo, N.Y. family, whose plastic infant Jesus statue was stolen last year from the nativity scene outside their home. It was returned in late August with a photo album from its travels around the state _ on the highway, near a bridge, on a bicycle _ and a note signed “Creators of the baby Jesus chronicles.” It was quoted by the Buffalo News.

DSB/PH END RNS