Blogfinger

Loud amplified rock on a Saturday afternoon on the OG boards takes a toll. Blogfinger photo. 9/24/22

Noisy amplified religious music on the OG boards on Saturday. 9/24/22. Not everyone there is interested. Paul Goldfinger photo.  Does the CMA prefer such an event on Saturday since they prefer peace and quiet on a Sunday?

Paul Goldfinger,  Editor. Blogfinger.net. 9/24/22. Ocean Grove.

On the third  day of autumn, Saturday, September 24, a musical religious celebration was happening at the boardwalk pavilion at Ocean Grove. The audience was modest, but the amplification was outrageous.  Why does the CMA have to share their religious activities with everyone in town–secular residents and tourists alike?

Why wasn’t this noisy event held in the Great Auditorium?  And why wasn’t such a happening held on Sunday?   As it is, Sunday is reserved for religious programs.  Can’t we get some  Saturdays in the Grove devoted to peaceful secular pleasures for everyone to enjoy?

It was a lovely afternoon; the sun was shining, and people were walking and talking.  It was the sort of day when a stroll  on the boards promised ocean breezes, sunshine, laughter, squawking seagulls, and an overall  noise-free peaceful  atmosphere.

When I went there late in the afternoon, there was a very loud  band, amplified, performing religious rock/ hip hop music and loud preaching  inside the pavilion but echoing all over, and the audience was spilling out onto that whole area, not only in the pavilion.   For me it was an  unpleasant sound and an intrusion into my having a peaceful Saturday walk on the boards.

I tried to find a place to escape the sound-attack,  but even near the pier the raucous noise was bothersome.  I had to leave.

Why should the CMA be permitted to have such a program  on a Saturday?    I grew up in a New Jersey small town with many churches, and we never had such events on Saturday or any other day.

Can you name any other Jersey towns that impose outdoor religious services on its citizens?

The boardwalk is a “public thoroughfare” as designated by the CMA, FEMA, Neptune and everyone else, so where is the separation of church and state?

Neptune supposedly governs the Grove, but what we have here is a theocracy by default.  And this religious service is  too much even though the CMA owns the pavilion and the boardwalk.  They don’t own the air or the right to fill the air with deafening sound.

The ambition of the CMA to become a dominant “year-round OG Christian seaside community”  will come true unless the secular community rises up to request consideration for those who are not into the CMA’s “mission.”

BILLIE HOLIDAY AND TEDDY WILSON.  “Easy Living.”