Changing demographics in OG raise questions about religious equality in this American town.
Ocean Grove boards: private or public? Tax exemption here. Paul Goldfinger photo © c 2020.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net December 4, 2021.
In our post of Dec. 3, 2021 regarding the Ten Commandments, we touched on some issues that specifically relate to Ocean Grove.
We reported that religious displays were fine if implemented on private property, but not if on public spaces. This is based on prior court cases around the country, up to and including the Supreme Court.
In Ocean Grove, even though the Camp Meeting owns the land, the CMA argued after Sandy (2012) that the Boardwalk was a “public thoroughfare” in order to obtain federal FEMA funds to repair the damage. FEMA eventually agreed with that, although they did not want to pay for the fishing pier. The CMA also gets tax credits for green acres designations for their lands.
This caused us to question such displays in public spaces such as the beach (big cross) , the parks. and the ocean (baptisms) There is a creche at Firemen’s Park and at Boswell Park. And there are a variety of displays on the Boardwalk.
One could debate whether the CMA owns the beach, but the beach is another public thoroughfare. The CMA certainly own the parks, the pier, and the boardwalk.
All of those places are public thoroughfares, so the question remains if prior court rulings about public religious displays apply to the CMA parks, beach and boardwalk in Ocean Grove which could be considered public spaces (per usage) despite being privately owned.
Today we received a comment from Ocean Grove historian David Fox. He reports that as early as 1907, the CMA received a tax exemption for the beach and the boardwalk on the grounds that those spaces are “public highways.” His comment is below:
December 4, 2021: Methodism came out of the Church of England in the 1700s when it was very “low church.” Crosses were deemed to smack of popery and avoided. This changed very considerably as the 19th century moved on, but US Methodists generally did not use crosses until around 1920. The Auditorium has the memorial cross from the end of WWII, but the interior cross is of more recent origin and was supposedly installed upon the complaint of a Methodist bishop.
The beach is legally a more complicated situation mentioned in the NYT of 4 June 1907:
“By decision of the Monmouth County Board of Taxation handed down today, Ocean Grove’s $3,000,000 beachfront, 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 boardwalk, had been dedicated years ago by the association as a public highway, and was not therefore subject to taxation.” (BF bold print.)
David H. Fox
Editor’s note: We now have documented that the CMA itself has sought benefits (federal funds and property tax relief) because some of its owned lands are to be treated as public. But if they are to be recognized as public, then wouldn’t the rulings about religious displays on public lands apply in the Grove? This is the sort of question that would have to be settled in court, but who would sue over this? Do OG citizens care about this?
At stake is the creche in Firemen’s Park, the religious setup in Boswell Park, the religious sentiments on the boardwalk, and the big cross and religious services on the beach.
Here is a Blogfinger link that is about some of these issues. June, 2021