A Christian group allows Sunday morning access to a New Jersey beach it closed to honor God

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

May 21, 2024, 10:54 AM


OCEAN GROVE, N.J. -- A Christian religious group that has closed its beaches on Sunday mornings for generations to honor God is relenting temporarily, allowing beachgoers onto the sand while it fights a court case with New Jersey over whose rules are paramount. The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist group that established a Christian seaside retreat at the Jersey Shore in 1869, says it will allow people onto the beach on Sunday mornings while the case plays out.

The association has asked for an emergency ruling halting action by the Department of Environmental Protection to enforce beach access laws that New Jersey says Ocean Grove is violating. The agency threatened fines of $25,000 per day. “For 155 years, we have closed our beach on Sunday mornings to honor God — a core pillar of this community since the founding of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association,” the group's statement says. “We are challenging this order to preserve our property rights and religious freedom.”

Ocean Grove is part of Neptune Township, just north of Asbury Park and about 60 miles south of New York City. The association owns all the land in the community that calls itself “God's Square Mile at the Jersey Shore,” including the beaches, which it has kept closed until noon on Sundays while it held worship services.

Some people defied the rules last year, venturing onto the beach on Sunday mornings. They said association personnel called the police, but officers did not intervene once they arrived. In court papers, the association said that “all members of the public are welcome (onto the beach) 365 days a year. Anyone, regardless of race, creed, religion or orientation is welcome onto this private property 99.5% of the year.”

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/christian-group-allows-sunday-morning-access-new-jersey-110435104

[Traildogbob]

1. Any heading

Starting with “A Christian Group” has turned into another expected story worse than one with the heading “A Florida Man”.
Jeeeebus Crisp!

[DFW]

2. The God Squad strikes again

Unless they got a message from God that no one else got, not even the Pope or the Ayatollahs, (and I promise you that they didn't), requesting/demanding exclusive use of that beach on Sunday mornings, the only thing they are honoring is their will to exert power over others. One might be forgiven for suspecting that this is the true goal of all organized religions everywhere. It has nothing to do with faith. It has everything to do with power over others and control.

[tonekat]

10. Crowd Control

This is what religion has always been...crowd control.

[Traurigkeit]

3. "For 155 years, we have closed our beach on Sunday mornings ... " They couldn't stop their people

from going to the beach on their only off day so they made a rule "for God".

[getagrip_already]

4. You know where scotus will eventually rule on this....

It's almost as if all these lower court dances are just a waste of time and money.

[twodogsbarking]

5. I'd say that is, well, really fucked up.

[Ford_Prefect]

6. Well you do know that some special animals are more Christian than others, yes?

[nebby70]

7. I can remember going there as a kid....

...Ocean Grove was the Methodist Summer Camp site -- all half a square mile of it.
It was a quirky place - abutting the 'wild' of Asbury Park. If you were 'lucky' you got to rent the camp-tents - a curious mash up of open shed and canvas... but there were a number of grand old Victorian era hotels.... actually it was very nice and laid back.
No cars, carts or wheeled things on 'Sunday as well as no dipping your feet in the waves -- and no alcohol (although that was true for every day) We went there mostly for the wonderful three ranked pipe organ and an organist who knew how to get the most of it as my Dad was a big fan of that organ.
It wasn't' until the 1980s that the place came up on the radar of folks -- (100 yrs after it"s founding)
Trust me folks -- they aren't some wild eyed evangelicals --they're just trying to keep tradition alive on a tiny strip of unremarkable sandy beach

[werdna]

8. Any DU Christians want to weigh in -

- on how closing a beach "Honors God"? I've read the Bible three or for times and can think of no passage even closely resembling, "Thou shalt honor thy Lord and God by Closing thine beaches on the Sabbath." Seriously, I need help on this one.

[Polybius]

9. Ironic if they make it a nude beach

[The Wizard]

11. Going to the Jersey shore as kids

we called it Ocean Grave. They also used to ban driving on Sunday.

[Xolodno]

12. I seem to recall that Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man.

In a good portion of the world at the time, you worked every single day, this gave you one day off to chill and recharge. It also made you more productive the rest of the week.

[Old Crank]

13. They will take it to the SC

Who will rule in favor of the religious clodures. Then every rich beach front owner will become a church and cut access to the beaches.

[Old Crank]

14. Every family member

Will have a religion with a different Sabbath to keep citizens out all the time.

[DoBW]

15. So the cathedral is open on Sundays ...

wow, what a concept

[24601]

16. The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (OGCMA) has been reasonably accommodating compared to the celebrities living

on or near Malibu Beach, where California's "earliest laws dictate that the area between the water line and the mean high tide line is public land. To put it simply, wet sand equals public beach. In theory, anyone could walk the 1,100 miles of California’s coast and never set foot on private property."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/12/malibu-celebrity-homeowners-beach-battle-public-access

While California's 1976 access laws codified existing common law, Gov. Murphy signed New Jersey's law governing beach access in 2019. Not everything is apparent from the article linked to the OP. It doesn't indicate whether it is addressing the area from the ocean to the normal high-tide line or if it grants access further inland beyond that line. If so, an issue likely will be compensation under the Constitution's taking clause found in the 5th Amendment, "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

I believe that OGCMA historically has been far more accommodating than California's celebrities who act as if they are entitled to everything at all times.