OCEAN GROVE, NJ — In this coastal community that calls itself “God’s Square Mile on the Jersey Shore,” all the land is owned by a religious group that for generations has enforced the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt stay off the beach on Sunday mornings.
But there are signs that decades-old policy may be coming to an end as a way to resolve a lawsuit filed by the state of New Jersey that could cost the group $25,000 a day in fines for violating state beach access laws.
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which has kept its beaches closed until noon on Sundays, has removed that restriction from its website. Item 4 under “Beach Rules” was used to outline the closure on Sunday morning. Now only the number “4” remains on the site, followed by an empty space.
The association and its attorney did not immediately respond to requests for clarification Wednesday, and the attorney general’s office said it is investigating the matter.
Limiting Sunday morning activities is central to Ocean Grove’s existence. It was founded in 1869 as a Methodist retreat, centered around a huge hall called The Great Auditorium, where worship services are held near rows of tent huts where summer pilgrims come to live in the shade.
The association, a Christian nonprofit that owns the beach and the land beneath all of Ocean Grove’s homes under a charter given to it by the state in 1870, has long kept people off the beach on Sundays before noon .
The state of New Jersey is challenging the rule, threatening fines and taking the association to court.
The dispute concerns an issue that has been disputed for generations but has never been fully resolved here: Does a religious group have the right to impose its beliefs on everyone in a community, including those of other faiths, or does it have no faith at all?
“We just think that’s wrong, that this is not what America is for, and it makes living here very uncomfortable if you’re gay, Jewish, atheist or agnostic,” said Paul Martin, who bought a house in Ocean Grove in 2003 with his wife, Aliza Greenblatt.
“We have the right to live here too,” said Greenblatt, who, like her husband, is Jewish. “We are not anti-Christian. We just want the boundary between church and state to be respected.”
The couple were among those who broke the rules last year and hit the beach on Sunday morning. They said association staff called police, but officers did not intervene when they arrived.
Harriet Bernstein is part of an Ocean Grove lesbian couple whose request to use the boardwalk pavilion for their 2007 civil wedding ceremony was denied by the association on religious grounds. After a court ruled in the couple’s favor, the association no longer allowed anyone to get married in the pavilion.
“I feel less comfortable imposing their religion on everyone who lives here,” Bernstein said. Referring to images of a cross on the badges people must buy to use the beach, she said: “I am Jewish; I don’t wear crosses.”
The association has not responded to repeated requests for an interview in recent weeks.
But lawsuits say what the state is trying to do violates U.S. constitutional amendments regarding freedom of religion, deprivation of private property, due process and equal protection.
Church and state have never been as neatly separated in Ocean Grove as in other places.
Although part of Neptune Township, just north of Asbury Park and about 60 miles south of New York City, Ocean Grove was once its own municipality, after being incorporated by the state legislature in 1920. But a court ruled that this act was unconstitutional and unconstitutional. a year later the congregation was dissolved.
Sunday morning beach closures baffle some but delight others.
“Ocean Grove is God’s place,” said Mary Martin, an 87-year-old retired teacher who moved here from northern New Jersey in 1960. “I love it here. I love Bible hour six days a week, great speakers, great singing, great fellowship, great joy, everyone welcome.”
Martin shares the sentiment often expressed by association members and their supporters, that a cherished way of life is under attack in Ocean Grove.
“There used to be no beach at all on Sundays,” she says. “Then we gave in and said, ‘Okay, Sunday after noon.’ Now they want to take that away too. We have to enjoy our Sunday.”
Neil Ostrander has a part-time job at the association and helps get the venue ready for the summer. When the newcomers arrived, he said, “they were aware of the deal” over ownership by a Christian group.
“It’s like someone coming over a bar that’s been a bar for 170 years and then suing it for being a bar,” he said.
In court papers, the association writes that “all members of the public are welcome (on the beach) 365 days a year. Everyone, regardless of race, creed, religion or orientation, is welcome on this private property 99.5% of the year.”
Public access is limited for 45 hours each year between Memorial Day and Labor Day, a policy the association called “abundantly reasonable.”
“The slight restriction on physical beach presence on the Lord’s Day is consistent with the DA’s mission to build and maintain a beautiful coastal community that can serve as a place for meditation, reflection and relaxation during the summer months innovation,” the association wrote. “The ability to contemplate an empty and tranquil beach for this limited time is at the heart of Plaintiff’s creation. Regardless of one’s beliefs, spending the morning hours in an unhurried morning stroll on a less crowded boardwalk benefits emotional, spiritual, and physical health. advantages.”
While acknowledging that the association’s beach policy is “steeped in the Christian faith,” the group also cites several non-religious reasons for it, including allowing lifeguards to have a few hours off at the end of a busy week and promoting ‘a better quality of life’. for residents and visitors, including by making more parking available for Sunday morning visits to shops and eateries.
The state takes a contrary view, saying the use of chains and locks to keep the public off the sand on Sunday mornings violates the association’s authority to operate a beach.
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