A church group that built a 500-foot pier in the shape of a cross on a New Jersey beach is now fighting to keep people off the beach on Sunday mornings.
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association was accused of ‘Christian bullying’ last year when it overruled local objections to build the pier at Neptune on the Jersey shore.
The Methodist group has a charter that gives it autonomy in the city of 3,000 souls that was founded as a Christian community and is known as “God’s Square Mile.”
But it is accused of violating the separation of church and state, and residents want them to remove the locks that have kept the beach free of sunbathers on Sundays for the past 154 years.
“They are in direct violation of state and federal law and it is time they were held accountable,” said Shane Martins of community group Neptune United.
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association said the ban improves the religious and secular quality of life in Ocean Grove
Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, pictured with his wife Nancy, is leading the fight against the opening of the beach
Members of Neptune United on Pride Day earlier this summer
The gates are closed every Sunday between Memorial Day and Labor Day between 9 a.m. and noon at nine “stairway entrances” from the boardwalk to the beach.
But New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has taken an interest, telling the group it may be violating public access rules in the state’s Coastal Area Facilities Review Act.
“The purpose of this alert is to notify you of the above potential violation so that you have an opportunity to voluntarily take corrective action and engage with the DEP,” wrote Robert H. Clark of the Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance. and enforcement.
“Please note that the DEP may continue to monitor the site for compliance, and we will be available to provide guidance if needed.”
The Methodist group that owns much of the waterfront property has long had an uneasy relationship with its more secular neighbors and was successfully sued in 2007 by a lesbian couple after it denied them a permit to marry on the boardwalk .
The $1.3 million pier design infuriated some when it was unveiled in 2019 to replace a pier destroyed by Super Storm Sandy in 2012.
Presbyterian minister Douglas Grote described it as another example of the “holier-than-thou” kind of bullying we’re all familiar with here, in what some call God’s Square Mile.
“I fear that the beautiful cross of my faith will soon become as poisonous as a Trojan horse to Ocean Grove, Asbury Park and all of New Jersey,” he said. NJ.com.
The association says that the 154-year-old ban has not led to complaints before
Badger cuts the ribbon at the pier opening ceremony on the beach just south of Asbury Park
“To me, any political force that would appear to bully its imprisoned, vulnerable, secular citizens into accepting a sectarian cross as the center of its cultural life is likely to be a human rights violator.”
The group’s chief operating officer, Jamie Jackson, said they would make “no excuses” for the design.
“This is a religious city that was founded as such in Ocean Grove and most people are excited that we can have this pier designed this way for these purposes,” he added.
“We love that it looks like a cross.”
The group’s chairman said the Sunday morning beach ban had never before sparked complaints and received support from many outside the church.
“The outcome of the step closure improves the religious and secular quality of life in Ocean Grove, which is recognized as valuable by society,” he wrote to the DEP.
“During this 0.5 percent of the year, the ocean view from the boardwalk and pier of the OGCMA is of sublime natural beauty without the visual elements of umbrellas, tents and crowds of people.”
The great hall of the Methodist group church in Ocean Grove
Badger said no complaints were ever received about the pier’s original design during the public comment period
Residents and visitors attend a gospel music performance on the controversial pier
No footprints in the sand: Protesters accuse the church group of excessive outreach and breaking public access rules
But tensions are rising after some protesters took to the beach on Sunday and ran into defenders of the policy.
“Every Sunday since Memorial Day, Neptune United has raised awareness,” Martins said.
Badger said his group is now in an “ongoing discussion” with the state.
“We’re just trying to understand the law together because there are elements in it that apply to this situation that I don’t think have been reviewed and fully fleshed out,” he added.