New Jersey Lawmakers' Passage of Civil Unions Bill Draws Strong Criticism

by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
December 15, 2006

(AgapePress) - - Conservative critics are blasting New Jersey lawmakers for their vote yesterday to allow civil unions. The measure passed by the State Legislature, which Democratic Governor Jon Corzine has said he will sign, extends full marital rights to same-sex couples.

According to Associated Press reports, Democratic Assemblyman Wifredo Caraballo supported the New Jersey civil unions bill and says he hopes the passage of the measure will lead to legalized same-sex "marriage" in his state. However, Republican State Assemblyman Rick Merkt is criticizing his colleagues who voted in favor of civil unions for letting the New Jersey Supreme Court tell them what to do.

Merkt sees civil unions as de facto "gay marriage" and is vociferously against it. Marriage is an ancient social, cultural, and religious institution, the Republican assemblyman contends, and he says his fellow lawmakers had no right to change the time-honored institution. Nor is he alone in his strong disapproval of yesterday's vote.

New Jersey Pastor Vincent Fields, who shepherds Greater Works Ministries in Absecon, New Jersey, has reportedly been banned from the New Jersey Senate for denouncing same-sex marriage from the floor of the chamber this past Monday. During his recent prayer before the legislative body, he "cursed the spirit that would come to bring about gay marriage," taking hearers -- and perhaps even himself, to a degree -- by surprise.

Fields says when he was first asked to pray in November before the New Jersey Senate, he declined. But when approached again and asked if he could give the prayer on December 11, he reluctantly agreed.

At that time, the minister says he had no intention of bringing up the issue of homosexual marriage; that is, not until he became filled with what he calls "holy indignation." He began his invocation on Monday rather conventionally, "just praying for wisdom," he recalls, "and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit just poured an unction."

At that point in his invocation to God, Fields says he looked up, and his mouth "was just framed to say, 'I curse the spirit of same-sex marriage and anyone who would usher it in and ask that You would shake them in their hearts that they would do that which is upright before You and righteous in Your sight."

That is why the pastor is, according to some accounts, no longer welcome to speak before the New Jersey Senate. But although various reports say Senate President Richard Codey has banned the co-pastor of Greater Works Ministries from praying in the chamber again, Fields says he has yet to hear from Codey personally.

This is not the first time Fields has gone a bit "off script" when asked to pray before the New Jersey Legislature. He notes that he also prayed before the State Senate a year and a half ago. At that time, the pastor recalls, he was warned beforehand not to be specific in his prayer so as not to offend Muslims and Jews; however, he says he prayed in the name of Jesus anyway -- twice.

New Jersey Pastor Won't Be Silenced About Same-Sex 'Marriage'
In any event, Fields says averse reactions to his prayers will not deter him from fighting immorality and preaching the gospel in a state that appears to be putting its stamp of approval on homosexual relationships. He believes the Legislature's overwhelming approval of a homosexual civil unions bill has troubling ramifications for the Garden State, and he says he feels led by God to "carry the torch" in the fight against the homosexual agenda there.

Despite this week's legislative victory for homosexual activists and their allies, Fields says Christians should not be deterred from carrying out Christ's command to be salt and light in their society. It is time for believers to begin to stand up, the pastor asserts -- to be the children of God referenced in Romans 8, a people "led by the spirit of God" to take on evil influences in their culture.

What that means, the New Jersey minister says, is that "we need to go out and possess the land and to take authority and be light in a dark and a perverse world, because this generation is getting worse and worse." In many places, the culture is "corrupting from the inside out," he says, while homosexual activists and other anti-Christian forces "are steadily pushing stuff through."

If Governor Corzine does indeed sign the New Jersey civil unions bill into law, Fields believes the measure will harm families and individuals statewide. Among the likely results of the legislation, he predicts, will be "more people coming out of the closets, and ... more marriages that were struggling and trying to find identity -- and trying to get help in the church -- that'll have more problems now, and they may be pulled over to the other side."

In effect, legalizing civil unions in New Jersey "opens up Pandora's box," the pastor says. "Once you get that through, what's next?" he asks. "Is there going to be polygamy? Should we have five wives? I don't know what they're going to do next."

Also, Fields wonders whether Christians' religious freedom may be a casualty of this push toward legalizing same-sex marriage. "If it becomes the law," he muses, "then I technically can be in trouble as a pastor if I have two gay people come before me, of the same sex, and say, 'We want counseling, and we want to be married.'"

If he as a Christian clergyman should refuse such a request, he asks, "Am I in jeopardy of losing my 501(c)3 from the federal government? Am I in jeopardy of losing my nonprofit status from the State of New Jersey because I say God doesn't give me permission to do this marriage, but the state says I must do it?"

New Jersey lawmakers' approval of homosexual civil unions or same-sex marriage poses a serious threat not only to families but to pastors who take a biblical stance against homosexuality, Fields contends. In passing the civil unions bill, he says his state legislature is effectively saying the Bible does not count.