After Sandy the CMA mobilized citizens and other volunteers to work together in the cleanup of Oct 2012. Paul Goldfinger photo .
Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor @Blogfinger.net.
Once again the role of the CMA in the life of Ocean Grove has resurfaced. Re-post from Blogfinger.
This post first appeared June 2019 (see below) regarding how the CMA affects the life styles of secular residents in town.
On Sunday June 2, 2019 a religious event occurred that alarmed some residents who live near the Great Auditorium on Ocean Pathway in Ocean Grove, NJ, USA.
The Liquid Church brought a crowd of religious tourists here for a morning service in the Great Auditorium. Apparently it was noisy, then lunch on the Pathway with 7 food trucks, and then later with baptisms on the beach. A usually quiet OG Sunday had changed. The Liquid Church was scheduled to be returning every Saturday night in July and August 2019.
This change raised these questions: Is Ocean Grove once again becoming a Christian town? Does the CMA have unlimited power to expand in ways that can impact the quality of life of all who live here? Does owning all the land give it that power?
Our 2019 article below gets into some of these issues:
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association used to run this town, but all that changed in 1980 when the N.J. Supreme Court turned over our historic village to the municipality of Neptune Township.
None of the “blue laws” were left in effect, except for bans on selling tobacco, sales of alcohol, and closing of the beach on Sunday mornings. There have been no coherent explanations for those bans and beach closures as initiated by a private group in a public town.
The CMA retained control over the beachfront and they actually own the boardwalk but not the sand underneath and they and others worked together to press FEMA in 2012 to help pay for the boardwalk restoration.
The Camp Meeting still owns most of the land in town as they pursue their religious “mission” which is growing year-round and has an effect on all who actually live in the Grove.
Interestingly, they have no membership list, so we don’t know how many residents in the Grove are committed to the CMA organization. Most of their supporters seem to be religious tourists, not counting those who only make contributions, support lucrative events, or stay silent when the CMA is criticized. In any case, it seems to us that the majority of citizens in town have a predominantly secular lifestyle.
As an example we buy season beach passes each year but almost never go to the beach. We do it consciously as a small offering to the CMA and we have contributed to their various funds, such as the Together Fund after Sandy. We even organized a fund raiser after Sandy with our Ocean Grove Film Festival, but we are basically secular full time residents with our own perspective about the town.
We are part of a community here of private residents who are mostly secular and who probably number over 5,000 if second homers are included. But, that group doesn’t have much influence.
So how does the CMA, a private religious organization, maintain the reigns of power here, in a democracy, to influence all the residents of this town?
Around 2011, Blogfinger became interested in the role of the CMA as it relates to the “community ” of Ocean Grove—ie the residents of the town.
We interviewed the President of the CMA. He said that this group would focus on its “mission” and not on the community of residents. That’s when I first learned that the CMA actually had a policy regarding the rest of the Grove.
After Sandy hit, the CMA stood tall to deal with the beachfront damage, but they also opened their arms to the secular OG community to help pay for it via the Together Fund. We were “one” at that time
2024 Perspective: Clearly the CMA is a sort of neighbor for all of us, but it is a peculiar sort. They have power and influence in Neptune that enables them to strong arm certain issues in the “Historic District” such as congestion, closing streets, parking dismay, land use (zoning aberrations,) pier construction, and illegal North End Redevelopment.
If we ask residents of OG the question: “What do you expect from the CMA?” we suspect that opinions will range from “nothing” to “a great deal.”
If you try to answer that question by thinking about the recent history of the CMA as neighbors in town, consider this summary below. It is a short list of how the CMA impacts all who live here.
a. They have lucrative large events through the year, especially during “prime time” which affect all of us who live here and which bring no money to help the entire OG community.
b. They bring in thousands of tourists for their religious based events, but also for the town- wide clogging mega-secular events on Ocean Pathway such as the “Giant Flea Market” They hope to extend their reach year-round.
c. They don’t care much about the secular residents in town as evidenced by their seeming indifference to issues that effect all of us, such as when they threatened to sue over permit parking before the conversation ever got out of the starting gate.
And you would think that they would be concerned about the Master Plan, Land Use abuses, historic preservation, and other matters that involve them. But they never speak out about these topics.
d. They were found to be guilty in 2007 of discrimination in the boardwalk Pavilion, and that stained the reputation of the entire town.
e. They have been intimately involved with the worrisome plans for the grotesque project at the OG North End.
f. Secular programming has been cut back at the GA.
Of course, there are many positive attributes for the entire town that stem from the CMA’s presence in the Grove such as: the 4th of July parade; Illumination Night; Christmas events; a clean and friendly beachfront; a wonderful summer mostly classical music program; and activities for families, kids and teenagers.
So, what do you think? Please comment below.
ELVIS: “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling”