CMA employees on June 24 at the OG beach. ? knuckleheads.  Jean Bredin photo. Click to enlarge.

OG friends. ? knuckleheads.   July 10. Blogfinger photo.

Ocean Grove boards. knuckleheads? July, 2020. Blogfinger photo.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.

Since June 28, the CMA has been holding Sunday services in the Great Auditorium, but President Badger thinks the limit for attendees at 100 is too few.

Now Badger has decided that there is plenty of room in the Great Auditorium for more people to safely distance, so he has requested a special dispensation from the Governor.

The APP headline says, “Ocean Grove asks Murphy to waive worship restrictions, says we aren’t like the ‘wilder beach towns.'”

Badger said to the Gov., “You have rightly warned the people of NJ to avoid being knuckleheads. In contrast to the wilder beach towns of Asbury Park and Belmar, Ocean Grove contains some of the most careful people anywhere who are following COVID-19 avoidance protocols,” Badger writes.   (APP July 10.)

It seems that Badger thinks that Asbury Park and Belmar are “wild beach towns” inhabited by unrestrained knuckleheads, implying that those towns should not qualify for an exemption because they are not “careful.”

Of course he has no data to back up his opinion that his “careful people” are more careful and deserving of an exemption than those “wild” things who go to church in A. Park and Belmar.

However, the official NJ web site for virus information says today,  “While services can resume, houses of worship must comply with the limits on indoor gatherings. Indoor gatherings must be limited to 100 people or 25% of a room’s capacity — whichever number is lower.

So regardless of the size of the GA, even if it were the size of Giants Stadium, only 100 would be allowed according to current executive orders. 

“All attendees at indoor gatherings must wear face coverings and stay six feet apart.” 

And maybe, at the GA, they would take everyone’s temperature and conduct a thorough knucklehead screening procedure at the entrances if Badger gets his wish just in case a Grover knucklehead tries to slip in.

The CMA has yet to receive a verdict from the high command.

We passed a huge mega-church on the GSP which appeared to be totally closed. Will the Gov. let them reopen even if there are no reassurances about how many knuckleheads pray there.

So Pres. Badger, instead of mounting feeble stereotypes against our  neighbors’ behaviors, should have merely focused on the known viral risks of assembly and sent the Gov. a photo of the GA.

CMA photo borrowed from the Asbury Park Press on July 10.

Of course, Badger misses the point by a mile when he asserts  that one is less likely to transmit the virus in OG due to our people’s angelic behaviors–an unproven contention.

He is correct that distancing could be easily handled in the Great Auditorium with more attendees, and just that geographic argument would have been sufficient.

Whether the Governor will take on this can of worms remains to be seen.

The APP headline once again confirms my conviction that the press can’t seem to distinguish between “Ocean Grove” and the “Camp Meeting Association. ” The headline says,. “Ocean Grove asks Murphy to waive worship restrictions….”

And, as we have said, the CMA makes no effort to correct the intentional confusion over nomenclature.

Also, this APP reporter who is supposed to be their expert on OG said, “The Camp Meeting Association owns all the property in Ocean Grove.”   He should have said “all the land.”   Real estate property includes land and buildings.