This crowded Sunday service at the OG Boardwalk Pavilion was photographed around 1999. Paul Goldfinger photo.

By Paul Goldfinger, MD.  Editor Blogfinger.net December 2, 2022. Ocean Grove, NJ.

In 1999 a book about Ocean Grove was published by the University of Minnesota Press  in Minneapolis and London.   It is called HOLY LEISURE:  Recreation and Religion in God’s Square Mile.   The author is Rev. Dr. Troy Messenger,  the then long-time Director (now retired) of Worship and a lecturer at Union Theological Seminary in New York.   He also  holds degrees from the Yale Divinity School.

He is an ordained Baptist minister, and his book is not easy to locate.  I got my copy about 10 years ago.

Rev. Messenger attempts  in this book to define the quest for “holy leisure”  as it has evolved over the years in Ocean Grove, NJ.   He explains how religious tourists came to the Grove to combine the quest for holiness with the need to escape the stress of cities and to enjoy leisure activities in summer at the Jersey Shore, i.e. a mixture of secular and religious yielding “holy leisure.”

He recognized the changes in demographics that were occurring here towards the end of the last century, and with a great deal of wisdom, fairness, and understanding he looked at a  situation where growing secular influences had to be recognized  and  welcomed.   For example he proposed that the CMA reach out to the gay community, and this was, of course, eight years before the Pavilion controversy.

At Blogfinger we can understand Troy Messenger’s recognition of changes  in the Grove where  the CMA and the holy leisure movement need to transition into the 21st century.

In his 1999 book he is describing an  Ocean Grove where there are  many who continue to seek holy leisure  but who also enjoy secular interests.

He saw an evolution where the holy-leisure life style could survive here only by adapting to change.

Messenger thought it was possible to achieve that goal, but now in 2022 many visitors and residents have no interest at all in the holiness (Camp Meeting) programs.

And so his envisioned goals may be less obtainable for the CMA now in 2022 , and perhaps the CMA  needs to reconsider its aggressive plan to turn this town into a “Christian Seaside Resort.”   Michael Badger and his board  may be pushing too hard against a rising tide of secularism in the Grove.

Here are some quotes from Rev. Messenger which will give our readers a taste of how he was trying to make his points:

“For the first 110 years of OG, the CMA governed and they got used to deciding right and  wrong and they were able to enforce those judgements  with their own ordinances, police and courts.”

Rev. Messenger looks at that history  and says, “The community’s religious based ordinances clearly articulated what constituted acceptable and unacceptable behavior.”    They  wouldn’t even allow the train to stop on Sunday at the OG/Asbury Park station.   Another example of their inflexibility was the ban on alcohol sales within the gates.

Little by little many of their rules were abandoned such as the trains on Sunday, but others remain such as the beach closure on Sunday mornings.

Maybe that strict confidence in right and wrong which has been handed down to the  2022 edition of the CMA  may cause them problems when they interact with current OG citizens.

Interestingly, Neptune Township has shielded most of its tax paying citizens from the inflexibility of the CMA, but not in the Grove where the Neptuners have an understanding with the CMA to allow certain controls over the OG residents and visitors.

Would such conflicting policies hold up in court in 2022?  Double standards in Neptune Township based on religion?    The court turned power over to Neptune , so there are policies now  in the Grove attributable to Neptune which are discriminatory on behalf of the CMA.    An  example would be the religious symbols in public spaces all  over town.

I drove today through Asbury Park and saw few  Christmas adornments as we have in OG.  The separation of church and state needs to be addressed in the Grove, and already some concerns have been expressed regarding the Constitutionality of certain  policies here. One group has approached the ACLU about such matters.

Messenger  points out that many folks thought that the loss of governance in 1980 would result in “the end of an era.”   But Messenger says, “Despite dire predictions, the community continues  to thrive almost two decades later.”

However,  Messenger’s  reference to a “thriving community” has changed since he wrote the book in 1999.

Now in Ocean Grove  we have a distinct secular residential community and a CMA religious community.  Yes there are overlaps, but the cultural divide is more pronounced now than 20 years ago.

Blogfinger has been analyzing this “tale of two cities” issue for at least ten years.  This post focuses on the CMA’s holy leisure movement, but we will have more to say about this divide from the perspective of the secular “community”–residential and even regarding tourism.  Check out the agenda for the CMA’s January meeting.

Messenger recognized that many “middle class” visitors were coming to the Grove who did not want that “holy leisure” life style.    He says, “The Ocean Grove of today exhibits many of the trappings of a tourist attraction.”   He does not welcome that concept, but it is true, and the CMA today has no problem with that fundamental evolution.

The Reverend  says, “Ocean Grove is evolving, particularly in the post-1980 era, into a community dependent on a new generation of respectable tourists, but if this evolution becomes divorced from the unique religious character of the Grove, then it will miss the point, and there will be problems ”

And that is what is going on now in the Grove.

So, in 1999, he saw life in the Grove continuing with holiness at its core and forming a new sort of religious-based community in the future.  He did not envision the diversity which is now evolving 23 years later .

His  projection  would not hold up today where we have a real divide which the CMA will not so far recognize.  We are referring to the CMA and its ally–the Township vs the residential community which is largely secular.    Wait and see the CMA reaction to residential permit parking and pay-to-park systems.

He rounds out his analysis by saying, “So where is holy leisure in Ocean Grove today?  How can the Camp Meeting resist secularization now that the gates are down? Has a century and a quarter of holy leisure  actually produced a different community, or different people?  In short, where do you find perfection?”

At Blogfinger we see perfection when the CMA steps back and realizes  the need to recognize  a  secular movement here.  Within that movement we notice an OG underground with youth, popular culture, and modern attitudes about marriage, sex, tolerance, religion , diversity and entertainment.  The division is not based on religion—it is based on policies in the Grove.

Messenger says  that “all of Ocean Grove should stop bending to the rhythms of the ebb and flow of camp-meeting time.”   He says that OG is “populated now by many people different from those who bend to those rhythms.”

But he acknowledges how special this town is when he says, “The people of Ocean Grove, almost without exception, consider this community unique, and many live here or return each summer, generation after generation.”  He points out that there are secular folks who still want to be in a place where “holy leisure ” can  be found.

“Today the diversity of Ocean Grove’s residents and visitors is greater than ever and is evident in striking juxtapositions  He mentions the presence of “luxury condominiums” and of a “growing enclave of gay residents.”  He says that “the challenge facing Ocean Grove is to see the diversity reflected in Camp Meeting Week and the new faces moving into town as opportunities rather than threats. The CMA might, for example, engage the gay community in dialogue and ministry.”

“As the town becomes increasingly a year-round community, the rhythms of holy leisure are blurred.”

Messenger  acknowledges that the Grove needs to “once again define itself in light of changes.”  And he says that “CMA  needs to lift itself out of its current struggles with increasing diversity, liberal Methodism, municipal politics, and the changing economy and ecology at the New Jersey shore.”

And finally, he wonders, as seen in his 1999 book, ” if the camp-meeting model is continuing to evolve to meet the needs of a third century of holiness seekers.”

He speculates about what it means to be a “holy person” in this 21st  century.  He says that time will reveal  certain kinds of people who will continue to negotiate the reality of holiness. These people will come back generation after generation for a summer in a two-room family tent.  Some lie on the beach with their bikini tops untied. Some do both.”

But  Rev Messenger didn’t count on the Ocean Grove of 2022 where the holy people that he refers to will mostly be religious tourists and where the residents here will mostly be secular citizens not interested in the evolution that he predicts.

TONY BENNETT AND BILL EVANS: