See, tolerance is a one way street. How dare the Methodist church do this!
Jersey Shore Christians Accused of ‘Bullying’ LGBTQ+ for Building Cross-Shaped Ocean Pier
A community along the Jersey Shore established as a Methodist retreat in 1869 is building a pier out of its boardwalk shaped like a cross, prompting outrage from the neighboring LGBTQ+ enclave, NJ Advance Media reported Monday.
Ocean Grove, New Jersey, broke ground on a project to restore a pier jutting out of the boardwalk in July that will feature a design that resembles a cross from above. The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, the Methodist organization that founded the community and still owns most of the land, has said that the design is an “improvement” that will allow more people to enjoy being out over the water, compared to the pier that it will replace. The project is part of larger restorations still ongoing since Superstorm Sandy devastated much of the Jersey Shore in 2012.
Ocean Grove is located next to Asbury Park, New Jersey. Beachgoers can walk the boardwalk out of one town into the other.
Wait, what’s that, they own the land, including the beach (some areas in NJ have the beach owned by government, some the homeowners own the beach)? Huh. If the OGCMA wants to build it in the shape of a cross, which does give more area out at the end, then they can, and it’s no one else’s business. But, this is 2022, so, let’s go to that link above from “reported”
Members of the small seaside town’s LGTBQ+ community and allies are saying the cross crosses a line, but many are afraid to voice their grievances with the Camp Meeting Association, said Douglas Grote, a local resident and retired Presbyterian pastor.
The cross-shaped pier feels like “Christian bullying,” said Grote, who has penned letters to local and state officials asking for intervention.
“I am so deeply concerned,” he said. ”And I am so concerned from my neighbors who are scared and bullied.”
And? If they feel that way, that’s on them. It’s just a pier with a small cross shape. These people are so soft. Bullied? Pfft. If they don’t like it they can leave the area. They knew it was a very religious area when they moved there
Ocean Grove, referred to as God’s Square Mile by some of its residents, is a seaside community of roughly 3,000 residents located just south of Asbury Park. It’s technically not its own town — Ocean Grove is a small section of Neptune Township, set aside with a unique charter.
It was founded more than 150 years ago as a summertime, tent-revival religious retreat. It was governed by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist ministry, as a religious enclave for 100 years until the New Jersey Supreme Court declared its charter unconstitutional after a series of lawsuits.
And the ministry still owns most of the land. Are none of the LGBT folks religious?
Since the pier project did not have to go through local officials for approval, many residents were surprised by the new cross-shaped pier design, said Shane Martins, an attorney who sits on the Neptune Zoning Board and lives in Ocean Grove.
Martins, who is gay, said even if he’s not personally offended by the design, “it’s not just about me, there’s other people being hurt.”
“Once this pier is built like a cross, I believe that will be the point of a no return,” Martins said. “To say that (cross-shaped pier) doesn’t represent Christian nationalism — anyone who says that isn’t being honest.”
Seems like that community is being intolerant. And, of course, has to take it further with “Christian nationalism”. It’s a pier. That is it. There are plenty of cross all over the area. You can be Offended all you want. Suck it up, buttercup.
I agree with Teach on this one. If it’s their land and beach they can build what they want, regardless if it offends their neighbors.
It would be like getting offended that two women got married or a raped 10 yr old obtained an abortion.
If the homosexual community are offended that a pier which is shaped like a cross, but a cross that can only be seen as one from the air, how long will it be before they start throwing a hissy fit over passing churches on the public street that have, gasp! visible crosses?
They wouldn’t, of course, dare say anything about mosques, despite the fact that in many Muslim governed countries, homosexuals are beaten, imprisoned and sometimes executed.
There is little chance of fundamental Islam making serious inroads in American law. Anyway, the “rules” of Islamic fundamentalists are not that different from christian fundamentalists.
Fundamental christianity has a long history of dictating US law, e.g., laws persecuting homosexuals, banning abortion, promoting capital punishment, “Blue” laws, prosecuting adulterers, sex workers etc. GOP legislatures in red states are passing new “religious liberty” laws permitting discrimination against LGBTQ people and allowing pharmacists to not dispense legal pharmaceuticals.
The distinguished Mr Dowd is aghast!
Note what Mr Dowd wrote: legislatures are “permitting” individuals to follow their consciences when it comes to LGBTQP people — the P added since “minor attracted persons” are trying to make inroads there — and “allowing” pharmacists not to carry or dispense drugs which offend them. They are not mandating discrimination against LGBTQP persons, nor prohibiting pharmacists from carrying and properly dispensing legal drugs.
I am no longer in a position to hire or fire anyone, but if I were, in my industry — ready mixed concrete production — I would never, ever hire any driver, dispatcher, loader operator, mechanic or technician who presented in such a way that I knew or strongly suspected to be homosexual. Why? they would be walking, talking hostile workplace environment lawsuits, because concrete contractors, commercial drivers, mechanics, and equipment operators are notoriously disrespectful to obvious homosexual males. Why would I ever want to cost my company that kind of dead loss money?
The amusing Mr Dowd wrote:
While I am certain that there are some “Christian fundamentalists” who believe that homosexuals should be stoned to death, it’s not like they have the actual power to do so. If some of them try it, they get arrested, prosecuted and thrown in jail.
Incorrect. Not even in the same league.
Just like Climate Cultists are doing now – passing laws based on religion.
Dear Elwood:
“Anyway, the “rules” of Islamic fundamentalists are not that different from christian fundamentalists.”
Are you out of your mind or just ignorant?
You leave Islam and they kill you.
Have an affair out of wedlock and they kill you.
Want to enjoy sex? They cut off your clit.
Date a boy not approved of? They kill you.
Be homosexual? They kill you.
And the list goes on and on….
And while Christians don’t blow up things or kill folks at a Xmas party, or gays at a gay night club….
The Shoe Bomber was a Muslim
The Beltway Snipers were Muslims
The Fort Hood Shooter was a Muslim
The Underwear Bomber was a Muslim
The U-S.S. Cole Bombers were Muslims
The Madrid Train Bombers were Muslims
The Bali Nightclub Bombers were Muslims
The London Subway Bombers were Muslims
The Moscow Theatre Attackers were Muslims
The Boston Marathon Bombers were Muslims
The Pan-Am flight #93 Bombers were Muslims
The Air France Entebbe Hijackers were Muslims
The Iranian Embassy Takeover, was by Muslims
The Beirut U.S. Embassy Bombers were Muslims
The Libyan U.S. Embassy Attack was by Musiims
The Buenos Aires Suicide Bombers were Muslims
The Israeli Olympic Team Attackers were Muslims
The Kenyan U.S, Embassy Bombers were Muslims
The Saudi, Khobar Towers Bombers were Muslims
The Beirut Marine Barracks Bombers were Muslims
The Besian Russian School Attackers were Muslims
The First World Trade Center Bombers were Muslims
The Bombay, Mumbai , India Attackers were Muslims
The Achille Lauro Cruise Ship Hijackers were Muslims
The Nairobi , Kenya Shopping Mall Killers were Muslims
The September 11th 2001 Airline Hijackers were Muslims
The Sydney, Australia Lindt Cafe Kidnapper was a Muslim
The Peshawar, Pakistani School Children Killers were Muslims
And that’s the problem with religious fundamentalists gaining political power!
Our laws won’t tolerate fundamentalists killing gays, or executing women for getting an abortion (yet!). Our fundamentalists shame women for enjoying sex, imagine if they were in power!
Christian fundamentalism and GOP conservatism have melded in the US, and once in solid control…
We know you won’t admit it Dowd but religious Christians have been running the US since day one until recently. There is no Christian here that would dare claim all Christians are good all the time but if they had wanted to make America a Christian Nation there was nothing to stop them.
We owe our religious freedom to the very people you keep denigrating because they were Christian. They could have made it illegal to be Muslim or Jewish or in your case a Climate Cultist. BUT THEY DID NOT! Instead of being grateful for the religious freedom they bestowed on our nation and wrote into our law all you do is bitch about everything Christians do.
Christian fundamentalism and conservativism have been in control before and we’re still here as a country so stop making it sound like we genocided everyone. And they were a lot more conservative then than they are now.
We don’t know why you hate Christians so much other than you hate God so you hate them too. Kind like you hate Trump so you hate us too for supporting him.
Everybody’s wrong but you Dowd. We know that. You’re a God denier and a constitution denier. You hate any organization that is superior to your commie overlords and nothing can change your mind. Not even the blood bath committed by your fellow deniers in the last century.
You know Dowd, it’s painful to read the shit you spew sometimes. Gives righteous people a headache. Gives American patriots a stomach ache. How anything like you could live among good people is baffling.
So stop reading. Duh.
Do you feel that a fertilized egg is a person and that aborting it is murder? If so, how would you punish the women and doctors for these acts of first degree murder?
Red herring again, Rimjob.
Stupid too.
Dear Elwood:
Your claim was “Anyway, the “rules” of Islamic fundamentalists are not that different from christian fundamentalists.”
Now you want to talk about “political power.”
The thing is, Islam is a political party. And it has never had a “Reformer” such as Jesus to erase the bad “rules.”
As you probably know, our Founding Fathers had the example of Catholics killing Protectants, and vice versa, right in front of them. That’s where the First Amendment comes from.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, Christianor of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
And again, the Christian fundamentalists are far far far different than Islam fundamentalists. While a Christian father may send a daughter away for marrying someone he disapproves of while the Muslim kills her. And while a Christian father may shame his daughter for enjoying sex, the Muslim will make sure her clit is removed to prevent her.
And Christians living in other countries follow that country’s rules, while Muslims demand that we change.
The point, of course, is that given the political power, we don’t know what miseries a christian fundamentalist nation would visit on their/your perceived “enemies”. So yes, it’s about political power.
But, of course, we do know what miseries a leftist government would visit on our nation: not just the tolerance of homosexuals, but active protections for them in ‘hostile work environment’ laws which put normal people’s jobs in jeopardy if they express normal sentiments which disapprove of homosexuality.
Not just tolerance for the ‘transgendered,’ but active suppression of normal people’s free speech rights through active punishments, in New York City, if you refer to them by the correct terms rather than the ones they want you to use, along with ‘hostile workplace environment’ laws which would put normal people’s jobs in jeopardy, and corporations’ profits at risk, if there are not strict regulations requiring normal people to lie about the ‘transgendered’ with reference to their names and sex.
Not just a government which goes after actual criminals, but one which seeks to restrict the rights of law abiding citizens through gun control legislation.
A government which compels school-aged children to attend schools, and then subjects those students to lessons designed to normalize the abnormal.
A government which requires school-aged children to attend schools, and then requires the schools to allow males to use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, intruding on the privacy of normal girls, if those boys just say the magic words.
A government which cancels the college debts of people’s bosses, to put the burden for the losses on working-class employees.
A government which tries to impose mandates on people to take an ’emergency’ vaccine, one which is now showing that it neither prevents contraction of the virus nor the spreading of it. A government which imposes mandates to wear masks in public places, when those masks do not even work.
Uh huh. Heaven forfend liberals tolerate LGBTQs. What a problem tolerance is.
Right-wing GOPhers running for governor, US Representative, US Senator wants to ban ALL abortions. Look at the state laws emanating from red states. Tutor Dixon (R-MI), candidate for governor, said it would be “healing” for a 14 year old impregnated by her uncle to be forced to give birth. Such tolerance.
And although it offends christian fundamentalists to know that LGBTQs are entitled to the same rights and privileges of straights it’s true that the majority of Americans have the same tolerant opinion.
Christian fundamentalists are upset that human decency is taught in public schools.
Christian fundamentalists are so upset by the world around them that they are prepared to abort any vestige of American democracy to take complete control of all Americans.
Christian fundamentalists, white nationalists, the MAGAts and the GOP have joined forces to force their beliefs on ALL Americans.
If successful, the nuPuritans will assiduously force fundamentalist christian policies on all Americans.
“And that’s the problem with religious fundamentalists gaining political power!”
No, that’s the problem with Muslim fundamentalists getting absolute power. They are just like you leftists in that anyone who disagrees is punished.
Our laws were created by Christians, many of which were fundamentalists and they guarantee freedom. (Still!) Imagine when we aren’t ion power to stop the tendency to rollover people not on your side? Even now you persecute non leftists, non believers in AGW, Covid, men made into women, not celebrating the transsexual bullshit and more.
Exactly who are “your fundamentalists that shame women from having sex”? We want to know. Women who are loose should be shamed. Or do you think being a whore is another perversion to be celebrated by the anointed? If anything “our fundamentalists” don’t do enough to enlighten women to how they’re being used by animals like you as sex toys then thrown away. Along with killing their babies. Yeah, you tell us how bad Christians are while you murder 500,000 unborn humans every year.
Jeff,
Your lack of knowledge is profound only surpassed by your bigotry.
The basis of our government and laws is rooted in Jewish/ Christian belief and morals. There is nothing wrong with this concept. The issue brought forward is the concept of Islam. Though the Islams give lip service to similarity with the other religions, their moral code is obviously much different. They allow and cheer on killing in the name of their cult leader. Their view of the world is far different from ours. Yes, you can pick up isolated instances of violence in the name of Christianity, but not to the extent of the Islams. It is silly to discuss history from 1000 years ago as you take much of it out of context and you do not understand the history.
You get past laws confused and again don’t understand. Your mention of blue laws is an example. Yes, this was billed as the religious day of rest. The real reason was to protect small business and allow the owners time off and to be non competitive with big business on that day. Prostitution laws were encouraged by the military to cut down of std in soldiers. Also concepts of sex tracking. In others words, numerous secular reasons. Much can be said for most of your list.
Islam is a very dangerous cult and our brave leaders do everything to keep them tame. Again, you are a very ignorant, stupid individual.
diva,
Fundamentalist religions are all dangerous cults whose feelings and beliefs originate from “gods”.
Regarding the reality of gods etc – there is no evidence to support their existence – but I could be wrong. Could you?
Science doesn’t know everything so maybe there are parallel universes and other dimensions of space and time. What if our current universe, some 14 billion years old, has formed and reformed over the past gazillion years!
There are 3-4 million Muslims in the US, clearly far fewer fundamentalist extremists than the 10s of millions of fundamentalist christian extremists here.
It’s difficult to differentiate between the white christian nationalists and the far-right extremists. There is great overlap. Even the heathen tRump reached out to white christian nationalists for support.
They all make the case that America is a christian nation founded on christian principles but are always ready to interpret the First Amendment as giving them the right to practice THEIR religion to the point of forcing it on others.
So-called christian principles may derive from more ancient religions/civilizations considered necessary for the functioning of an actual society. Things such as don’t kill, steal, lie, cheat, shit in your neighbor’s barn, bang your neighbor’s wife etc. – activities that destabilize a society.
Jeff,
I don’t debate religion, that is personal and you clearly are not capable of such a discussion. The first amendment has zero to do with the moral foundation of the country.
Islams are very bad people. Of if chose to believe different then you are a fool. And 4 million in our country is 8 million too many.
I spent most of the day at our parish church. No, not at Mass, but retiling a floor in the basement.
Sister Teresa buttonholed me at Mass last Sunday, and said, “I have something I need you to fix.” She led me down to the church basement, where B-Dry had done some work, and had ripped up, without replacing the vinyl commercial grade floor tiles.
Sigh! So, I got that job ‘assigned’ to me. I’ve got about another half-day of work to finish the job.
This is the most insane and hateful rant against Christians I ever read. I’m stunned anyone here, even a turd like Elwood would say such rotten nasty things about people he neither knows nor understands. He doesn’t know what Christians fundamentalist or not believe or want but if our American history is any indication they want a republic based on individual freedom. That’s what all those bad people created.
Read it again and see the hate. THis is the kind of person who currently is running America. Hate. Ignorance and evil.
“The catholic but not Catholic Elwood P. Dowd says:
August 26, 2022 at 8:16 am
Uh huh. Heaven forfend liberals tolerate LGBTQs. What a problem tolerance is.
Right-wing GOPhers running for governor, US Representative, US Senator wants to ban ALL abortions. Look at the state laws emanating from red states. Tutor Dixon (R-MI), candidate for governor, said it would be “healing” for a 14 year old impregnated by her uncle to be forced to give birth. Such tolerance.
And although it offends christian fundamentalists to know that LGBTQs are entitled to the same rights and privileges of straights it’s true that the majority of Americans have the same tolerant opinion.
Christian fundamentalists are upset that human decency is taught in public schools.
Christian fundamentalists are so upset by the world around them that they are prepared to abort any vestige of American democracy to take complete control of all Americans.
Christian fundamentalists, white nationalists, the MAGAts and the GOP have joined forces to force their beliefs on ALL Americans.
If successful, the nuPuritans will assiduously force fundamentalist christian policies on all Americans.”
NOTHING BUT HATE AND LIES!!!!!