Tent Village in Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger, Blogfinger photo. A beautiful and wondrous place but let’s get the facts straight.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net. 22 and 23—reposted in March 2025. The issues are unchanged.
June 2023: Sloppy and inaccurate use of language regarding the CMA and its detractors is nothing new. Read the 2022 post below from Blogfinger. net. And then read the Coaster’s June 8 and June 15 2023 editions, to find even worse sloppiness in documenting the truth about Ocean Grove, its history, and the clashes of Camp Meeting with secular and other subgroups in town.
I have been critical myself of the Camp Meeting Association at times, but Blogfinger has always tried to back up its critiques with facts. However now (2023) we are confronted with outrageous and irrational attacks against the CMA where accusations without facts have become the coin of the realm. We will challenge such dishonesty.
Here is the 2022 article referenced above:
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net 5/14/22.
In the May 12, 2022 edition of the Coaster, “an award winning weekly,” the town of Ocean Grove is once again misrepresented as a religious community, which it is not.
We have complained of this before, because this misuse of language will perpetuate the idea in the minds of many who don’t know the town well that this historic Victorian community on the National Historic Register is all about religion, and that can effect who visits here , who shops here, and who might consider living here.
Plus there is the sincere concern about the honest use of language in our town.
The Coaster reporter says that OG is a “Christian seaside resort,” a claim that the CMA keeps making even though it is a distortion of the truth. Of course, at the founding, that is exactly what it was, but Ocean Grove is no longer that.
Yet the CMA keeps twisting the truth by having a large cross on the beach, a cross on the beach badges, a voluminous schedule of religious events all summer long, misleading interviews with the press, and giving visitors and the public the impression that this town is indeed a religious enclave.
This is a promotion on Instagram regarding a Liquid Church program to be held in Ocean Grove.
Even the National Geographic got it wrong when they wrote about our zip code. The US Census found that we have 3,000 census-eligible people living here in this .4 square mile town. They didn’t assess any religious parameters. but those who live here know that the CMA has no actual membership. Their “people” are mostly religious tourists who contribute to the CMA but don’t live here. And their board mostly lives elsewhere.
The Camp Meeting Association encourages this confused use of language by placing their name on the signs which greet everyone who enters the Grove. They have services on the boardwalk and beach and misleading messaging on signs at the beach. I have seen them approaching boardwalk walkers during a Pavilion service and having signs on the boardwalk about their programming.
There are Christmas events in public parks as well as a creche in Firemens Park. It’s no wonder that many visitors are confused about this point.
It is rumored that the new pier will be the shape of a cross, but the CMA is keeping that hush hush.
The truth is that Ocean Grove is a largely secular town, a discrete section of Neptune Township. This fact is often left out of the CMA’s publicity. Neptune calls OG their “historic district” and never promotes the Grove as a religious part of town.
The reporter who wrote the article interviewed Michael Badger and Jamie Jackson, both officials of the CMA. None of that threesome made any effort to describe Ocean Grove accurately.
The Coaster front-page piece is about the 114 tents which are currently being erected, and as most of you know, that tent village is localized in the shadow of the Great Auditorium.
But most of this town is residential with cottages, condos, apartments, hotels, B&Bs, shops, and Victorian houses. The tent village is just a tiny part of OG, but that is not clarified in the article. And, I would bet that most of our beach, boardwalk, around town, and downtown visitors are secular, as are most of the hotel and house renters.
But the dominant OG residential community is rarely identified and they are never mentioned in articles about the Grove.
The article also claims that the tent village is “inhabited by long time summer residents who return each year to enjoy spiritual birth, growth and renewal.”
Is that true? Is it true that everyone who stays in a tent is here for religious reasons?
We know a number of tenters who find tent living to be a wonderful summer experience, but they are not religious zealots. Those people pay rents to stay there. Does the CMA pay property taxes for that piece of land where the tents are being rented?
“Spiritual birth, growth and renewal” is a CMA slogan to describe the summer goals in their religious community which is a small component of this town. It is not a slogan for the town of Ocean Grove, and their publicity needs to make that distinction clear.
The article also makes an unsubstantiated claim: “Ocean Grove is the largest authentic religious camp meeting ‘tent community’ that is still flourishing in the United States.”
Is that true and is that how we Grovers want our town to be characterized? Again we see the misuse of the name Ocean Grove.
I have always thought that the town of Ocean Grove, with its mix of religious and secular, might very well be unique in the US, and that is interesting and provocative, but the truth needs to be sorted out by the Neptuners, the Home Groaners, the CMA, the Chamber of Commercials, the press, and those who actually live here.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the tent village. Jean Bredin and I are there all the time for life style reporting and photography, but the Grove needs to get the facts straight.
AMY VACHAL:
Thanks Phil. Your opinion is important. As far as a letter to the Coaster, I’m not a big fan of their ability to influence anybody as far as OG is concerned. Paul
I enjoyed the post and fully agree that this is important.
Ocean Grove is more than a land parcel where some Christians come to get holy!
The Coaster needs a reminder via letter to the editor, right?
Even though Ocean Grove looks like and seems to function like a town, Ocean Grove is not a town but a Holiness Camp Meeting established to promote the Holiness movement. Though many that live in or visit OG may not understand the movement or care to participate in it or even know that it exists, it is what the OGCMA and Ocean Grove was established for, to promote the Holiness movement.
In fact, every lot/lease owner pays a lot rent to the OGCMA as the land owner to help pay for their Holiness programs, so in fact, every lease owner is helping to promote their Holiness movement.
Even though everyone calls the OGCMA’s camp meeting, Ocean Grove, it does not change the fact that it is a camp meeting that was established for promoting the Holiness movement which it still does.
Kevin: Of course the CMA “believes” that “it is a Christian resort and community.”
But that is not what this post is about. This is about the appropriate and fact-based use of language–specifically the name “Ocean Grove.”
I hope you will agree that “Ocean Grove” is the name of a town and not an alternative name for the Camp Meeting Association.
If you accept that, then there is no “belief” or “opinion “to debate.
Paul
There may be many people in OG that believe or may not even care if OG is a Christian resort or community, but, the OGCMA as the land owner, does believe it is a Christian resort and community.
Everyone must decide for themselves whose opinions they will chose to believe in this case. That is, if they even care.
That’s what makes America Great, all the different beliefs that are tolerated and respected by tolerant Americans.
We don’t attribute motives on Blogfinger, but it seems likely that the “sloppy language” is intentional as the CMA appears to be striving to steer Ocean Grove back to 1870 when it was a theocracy.
Equating “Ocean Grove” with a “Christian seaside community” seems to be a purposeful misuse of language.
I believe the CMA wants to encourage Methodists to repopulate this town.
Diversity here would run counter to their ambitions.
All residents in the Grove need to keep an eye on what the CMA says, and even more, on what it does.
We may be living in a situation which surely cannot be found in any other town in America. Are any of you planning to leave over these issues? You can email us or comment anonymously.
And Neptune Township has a responsibility to take note of what we are describing.
According to this year’s tax records at Monmouth County, the tents immediately adjoining the Auditorium are listest as tax exempt. However, the “Bethany Block” of tents west of Central Ave. is assessed at $846,000. The Ocean Pathway islands have a $0 valuation.