A patchwork of these religious-organization exemptions exists over the states.
At first, the religious-organization exemptions appear comparable to the clergy exemptions, enabling, for instance, both a Catholic priest to refuse to commemorate a wedding and a Catholic college to reject usage of its campus chapel for marriage ceremonies. However the pervasiveness of spiritual businesses and their numerous general public functions complicate their exemption situation. As an example, in an earlier nj-new jersey situation, a few lesbian partners used to hire the Ocean Grove Boardwalk Pavilion because of their civil union ceremony. The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association associated with the United Methodist Church (CMA), which has most of the seaside land in Ocean Grove, refused the leasing due to its religious opposition to same-sex wedding. Ocean Grove, nonetheless, had gotten funding that is public an income tax exemption and provided a vow to help keep the land ready to accept the general public. (Ocean, 2007). (more…)