New Jersey

Like most pastors, the Rev. Arthur Suggs had prepared a Palm Sunday sermon for this past Sabbath day.

But the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Binghamton, N.Y., had to scrap the sermon after an angry gunman killed 13 people at a nearby immigrant aid center on Friday before killing himself.

Instead, Suggs used the pulpit Sunday to comfort a mourning community, to encourage his congregation to embrace those affected, and to decry a culture that he said has become desensitized to violence. more >>

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – A church group that owns beachfront property discriminated against a lesbian couple by not allowing them to rent the locale for their civil union ceremony, a New Jersey department ruled Monday in a case that has become a flash point in the nation's gay rights battle.

The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights said its investigation found that the refusal of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to rent the oceanfront spot to the couple for their same-sex union in March 2007 violated the public accommodation provisions of the state's Law Against Discrimination.

While the ruling is decisively in favor of the couple, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster, it does not end the case. An administrative law judge still must decide on a remedy for the parties. more >>

CAMDEN, N.J. – A commission has concluded that New Jersey legislators should allow gay couples to marry, setting up what could be a spirited debate over whether the state should be the first to allow gay marriage by passing a law, rather than by court mandate.

In its final report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the state's Civil Union Review Commission concluded that the state's two-year-old civil union law doesn't do enough to give gay couples the same protections as heterosexual married couples.

"This commission finds that the separate categorization established by the Civil Union Act invites and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children," the report says. The findings of the commission's 13 members were unanimous. more >>

For nearly a decade, born-again Christian Neil Clark Warren has been working to pair up men and women to help create lasting marriages.

After 35 years practicing as a clinical psychologist and counseling thousands of married couples, Dr. Warren had observed that, in many cases, marriages that endured were composed of compatible people, while marriages that deteriorated often did so because the differences between the individuals became harder to resolve over time.

With the help of a research professor at the University of Southern California, Warren set out to identify the characteristics between spouses that were consistently associated with the most successful relationships. more >>

An eighth grader at a New Jersey middle school was sent home Friday after he dressed up as Jesus Christ for Halloween.

Alex Woinski, 13, wore a white robe, red sash, sandals, fake beard, and crown of thorns on his head after receiving encouragement from his friends, who said he looked like Jesus with his shoulder-length hair.

When Alex arrived at West Brook Middle School in Paramus, however, officials told him he could only keep the costume on if he removed the beard and the crown of thorns. more >>