JERSEY CITY, N.J. — On a recent Sunday morning, a former governor of New Jersey stood before a predominantly African-American church congregation here, tapping a Bible on his thigh to the choir's rendition of "Blessed Be the Rock." In the pews before him sat a group of ex-convicts he knew well.

When the music stopped inside Bethesda Baptist Church, James McGreevey spoke from the pulpit in a full-throated sermon complete with dramatic gesticulations and the occasional "amen." His subject: struggle.

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