A Christian group is blocking access to a Jersey Shore beach on Sunday mornings
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association doesn't want anyone on the beach when church is in session
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New Jersey officials are attempting to stop a Christian group from blocking access to a public beach on Sunday mornings.
It comes after the Methodist group managing the beach in Ocean Grove has openly proclaimed its religious intentions for the property—to the point that they installed a cross-shaped pier on it earlier this year:
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OGCMA) doesn’t hide its religious affiliations. The group says the area was “founded as a Christian seaside resort” and has a mission befitting that description:
The mission of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, rooted in its Methodist Heritage, is to provide opportunities for spiritual birth, growth, and renewal through worship, educational, cultural, and recreational programs for persons of all ages in a Christian seaside setting.
Their goal is to help all generations “know and grow in Jesus.”
How did they get control of this space? NJ.com says it’s the result of a charter offered by the community:
Ocean Grove, referred to as God’s Square Mile by some of its residents, has about 3,000 residents. Though it is only a small section of Neptune Township, it has a unique charter that allows it to set some of its own rules under the Camp Meeting Association.
The Ocean Grove Meeting Association was sued in 2007 when it barred same-sex couples from using its boardwalk pavilion for civil union ceremonies. A judge later ruled that ban violated the state’s anti-discrimination law.
(In response to that judge’s decision, the OGCMA decided no one could have any weddings on the boardwalk. Because if conservative Christians can’t get what they want, everyone must be punished.)
Those special rules, however, are what gave them the ability to construct the $2 million Christian pier that opened in April. The original one was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy over a decade ago, so they jumped at the opportunity to inject some Christian Nationalism into the pier’s replacement.
But the latest controversy involves access to the beach. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day—a total of 15 weeks—no one was allowed to go on the beach before noon on Sundays. In fact, the entrances were barricaded with chains and padlocks.
That, the state says, is a problem.
In an August 10 letter to the group from the Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance and Enforcement, Regional Supervisor Robert H. Clark said the barriers prevented people from accessing the beach during daylight hours, violating state law.
The OGCMA says there’s a perfectly good secular reason for preventing people from visiting the beach:
“The outcome of the step closure enhances religious and secular quality of life experiences in Ocean Grove which society recognizes as valuable. During this 0.5% of the year, the view of the ocean from the OGCMA’s boardwalk and pier is of sublime natural beauty without the visual elements of beach umbrellas, tents, and masses of people,” Badger wrote in a response to state Department of Environmental Protection provided Friday to NJ Advance Media.
See? It’s just a coincidence that the natural beauty needs to be preserved during the busiest swimming days of the year… and nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Sunday mornings are typically when churches hold services.
Shane Martins, founder of the local watchdog group Neptune United, said the barriers also prevented people with disabilities from accessing the water, which is another legal problem:
Township police have been on the scene but have declined to either remove those on the beach, or take away the pad lock barriers, which Martins said is contrary to federal law protecting access for people with disabilities.
“They are in direct violation of state and federal law and it is time they be held accountable,” Martins said.
So far, OGCMA hasn’t been issued any fines or punishment. In the meantime, they’re shoving Jesus in visitors’ faces in any way they can:
Christian symbols can be found all around Ocean Grove. On the beach, a Christian flag flies beside the U.S. flag. Beach badges sold by the Camp Meeting Association include a cross, beach umbrellas available for rent are decorated with cross icons and there’s a cross mounted on the dunes at the beach.
The message is clear: Jews and atheists and Muslims are not welcome in this part of the state. They can visit, sure, but the people running the show want them to know this is a Christian area, church/state separation be damned.
As of this writing, no lawsuits have been filed against the OGCMA, though the ACLU of New Jersey notes that the crosses on the beach badges “raises serious legal concerns.”
More broadly speaking, though, the message of the group is clearly one of exclusion. No matter how often they say they welcome everyone, their actions place Christians above all others, even when it comes to public accommodations. Even when Neptune Township officials have asked the OGCMA to make adjustments in a secular direction for the sake of being more welcoming, those requests have been ignored or rejected.
How does this group have this much power? Arguably because they fund everything themselves, which creates a much more complicated argument for those trying to put a stop to it. When reporter Daysi Calavia-Robertson wrote about the arrangement this past May, she explained how the OGCMA pays for its dominance to the point where its inclusive rhetoric doesn’t have to match its actions:
That’s no doubt because of all the Camp Meeting does for the town that would normally be paid for through taxes. It fundraised and paid for the new $2 million pier. It provides year-round recreational programs and events. It’s also in charge of collecting the beach badge revenue — money it’s required to spend on maintaining the beach — and a nominal annual fee homeowners must pay to lease the land.
…
… no one – not a single person I spoke with – is suggesting [the OGCMA] shouldn’t be who they are and embrace their history and religion. All that’s being asked of them, all that people are pleading for, desperately, is that they also give other people the breadth to be who they are. But it seems to me that what the Camp Meeting says is all just lip service. I’d much prefer to see them show tolerance instead of just talking about it.
As a number of articles point out, litigation has been the most successful way to create change in this community. Even if the lines are blurred, nothing is going to change until church/state separation groups figure out how to take the OGCMA to court and force them to do the right thing. Their Christian faith hasn’t steered them in that direction yet and there’s no reason to think their moral compass will ever point in the right direction without a judge’s help.
The religious right dreams of a world where everyone needs their permission for pretty much everything. They're a group that will never have all the power they seem to think their religion entitles them to. They will, of course, always present themselves as the persecuted victims of the godless left.
𝐴𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑛𝑜 𝑙𝑎𝑤𝑠𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑂𝐺𝐶𝑀𝐴, 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝐶𝐿𝑈 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝐽𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑏𝑎𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑠 “𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑠.”
NO KIDDING! The ACLU is clearly indulging in understatement here. A religious organization, dictating usage of PUBLIC PROPERTY to the citizens of Ocean Grove?!? If that doesn't come under the heading of Utterly Intolerable, I can't think of what might. What is needed here and now is a local complainant, whereupon the Freedom From Religion Foundation and perhaps American Atheists as well can hammer these mindless Methodists properly.
Because this is overreach like I've rarely seen it.