Fran Scalessa conducts a protest yoga class with 16 supporters on the OG boards. 8:30 am. 8/20/22. Paul Goldfinger photo.Notice how they position themselves to allow boardwalk traffic to go by. Click to enlarge.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove. August 20, 2022.
Yoga Man Fran Scalessa had been banned from conducting his classes on the OG boards or pier unless he agreed to give in to illegal religious discrimination epitomized by the CMA (Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association) as they tried to force Fran to recite Christian ideology in exchange for continued classes on the boards. (As the Romans would say: ” a quid pro quo” ). *
Obviously Fran refused to comply, and then this morning, Saturday August 20, 16 of his students showed up for a class and to show their support.
The CMA, however, did not react…today.
However the conflict is apparently not over: a confidential source told Blogfinger that Mr. Badger would consider alleging trespassing if another yoga class were held on the boards. This would be a strategy to prevent any more Yoga Man classes.
Yogagate is achieving growing attention—witness the 1,400 hits Blogfinger had two days ago, mostly about the Yoga Man.
And there has been growing interest in social media. And what if national media were to show up? That happened in 2007 when the CMA was found guilty of discrimination over their actions against gay Grovers in town. We had news trucks from Fox News, NBC, and other news operations parked in front of the Great Auditorium.
If the CMA now continues to make unreasonable and illegal demands President Badger will only succeed in stimulating more opposition to him and his policies. Does he want less friends?
* Based on an interview with Fran Scalessa.
CAST OF THE MOVIE QUARTET.
The Honorable Members of the CMA are well intended, but, the CMA is not the Methodist Church.
They are a corporation and do not own all of the land in Ocean Grove.
The Boardwalk, Fishing Pier, and the cement slab located by the restrooms are all built on or over State owned land, under the overlapping jurisdictions of the State’s DEP, Green Acres, and the Army Corps of Engineers.
The CMA does not have the authority to adopt double-standard rules instructing people to pray before using them.
The State Superior Court has told them to stop this nonsense, and they should have learned their lesson after not permitting a Gay civil ceremony at the Boardwalk Pavilion.
Did I mention ‘Double Standard?’
Even the Methodist Church does not do that on the property they own in Ocean Grove.
Neptune gets involved only when a crime is committed on the Beach, and the police do not consider Yoga on the Beach to be a crime.
Jack Bredin