2021 badge
Krista checks badges at the OG beach. Paul Goldfinger photo. 2015.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net. 12/08/2022.
In 2021 we had a discussion about crosses on beach badges. See link below. (“Should OG beach patrons…..)
In May 2022, there still is a cross on the badge, but it is much less obvious. We posted the piece below in May 2022. In that brief discussion we offer the official Blogfinger position on this subject.
However, in today’s Coaster, 12/8/22, we see a complaint by a Grover, Joyce Klein, who also is a member of the OGHOA board. Evidently she is not representing the HOA with this letter to the Coaster editor where she directs her comments to the OGCMA Board of Trustees:
She says that the 2023 badges “prominently display a Christian symbol in the form of a cross.” She complains that non-Christians like her should not have to “wear or carry a beach tag with a cross included in the design.”
She requests “an accommodation to purchase beach badges that are free from Christian symbols ”
Ms. Klein says, “I look forward to learning that I can purchase an alternate beach badge or one than has been modified to accommodate beach goers who are non- Christian.”
Editor: See our latest comment by clicking on
“comments” at the end of this post. (12/8/22)
Should OG beach patrons be required to wear a beach badge with a prominent cross?
May 9, 2022, Beach badge update: After struggling with Viply on line, I went over to the CMA to collect two senior badges. It’s good that an employee was there to fiddle with my iPhone in order to take the necessary steps to prove that I had paid. The last step involved a scan using my phone. Even a badge purchase is now complicated.
Then I was handed the badges. At that point the high tech was done, and I was given a low tech piece of advice, “Don’t lose your badge.”
The badges were in a plain brown paper envelope. When I took one out, there was the cross again, but smaller than 2021.
Doesn’t the beach badge represent that the public space (beachfront) is allowed by the State to be managed by the CMA and that, as was argued with FEMA over public funds for boardwalk repair, the beach is a public thoroughfare?
And, as such, shouldn’t it be represented as non-denominational?
Once again we experience the CMA’s dual personality, public and private, which continues to create a murky situation in the town of Ocean Grove.
TIERNEY SUTTON “Where or When.”
This court case was about whether Grove Hall should be tax exempt or not. Link below:
https://www.njcourts.gov/sites/default/files/court-opinions/2022/a2730-20.pdf
@Kevin Chambers – Regarding your post: …”true discrimination forced on OG residents through the illegal zoning practices by Neptune that truly violates the civil rights of OG residents…”
I couldn’t have said it better. :/
In case you don/’t know what NU is, it is the Neptune United, a new group which has bared its fangs in the direction of the Camp Meeting Association. We have discussed them on Blogfinger* in the recent past and we will have more to say about them.
Website: NeptuneUnited.org.
Meanwhile they are raising some important questions about our town, and you can go to their website. We haven’t made up our mind about them—it’s too soon.
* Here is a link from Blogfinger last month:
https://wp.me/pqmj2-OLf
Last year, there was a tax dispute regarding Grove Hall.
OGCMA v. Township of Neptune, 20 April 2021
“Currently, plaintiff [OGCMA] agrees that it is not a church within the conference of Methodist churches, nor under the control of a Bishop of the United Methodist Church. Deposition testimony also shows that there is no “agreement” between the United Methodist Church and plaintiff, and plaintiff is not considered as a congregation of the United Methodist Church.”
This reemergence of the beach badge issue coincides with the aggressive opposition to a cross shaped design for the new pier as put forth by Neptune United.
And there is Blogfinger’s complaint regarding the creche in the park and our concern about the CMA’s expanded religious programming around town and in their expressed wish to turn the town into a “Christian Seaside Resort.”
In addition we have written about church vs state issues as has NU.
And finally we see that the OGHOA is planning a “forum” next month regarding differences between the CMA and the “non-religious” group in town. Hopefully the HOA will avoid turning this into a religious war.
Given the CMA’s pushing its religious agenda in the Grove, as documented many times in Blogfinger.net, it is not surprising that a backlash is emerging in opposition. And this backlash is not anti-Christian. It is about the policies of the CMA which is a religious organization and not a church, as the NU has pointed out.
It remains to be seen if all this activity will coalesce into a serious confrontation or a new birth of freedom for a town with common purposes and a new master plan.
The CMA should reassess its agendas in the Grove and to begin to recognize the existence of a diverse and secular residential community which doesn’t want OG to once again be known as a religious town.
It appears that the CMA will have to reverse its direction if it wants community harmony here.
Just because Ms. Klein lives in OG doesn’t mean she is forced to go to the OG beach. If she is so offended by wearing a beach tag with a cross on it there are many beaches in NJ she can go to that won’t offend her.
There are thousands of people that will drive an hour or two to go to any number of beaches at the Jersey shore, her laziness to walk a few more yards to either Asbury Park or Bradley Beach is not a reason to force the OGCMA to give up one of their logos.
Ms. Klein who sadly is on the board of the OGHOA would better serve residents if she focused on the true discrimination forced on OG residents through the illegal zoning practices by Neptune that truly violates the civil rights of OG residents.
New York Times, 4 June 1907:
“By decision of the Monmouth County Board of Taxation handed down today, Ocean Grove’s $3,000,000 beach front, the property of the Camp Meeting Association, is to escape taxation. It was shown to the board by the association’s legal representative, Samuel A. Patterson, the valuable strip of land, with its board walk, had been dedicated years ago by the association as a public highway, and was not therefore subject to taxation.”
Of course, crosses have been erected on the sand over the years. The future fishing pier is rumored to be cross-shaped. I can imagine some of the faithful assuming a crucifixion position at its center as a pious act.