New Jersey Christians fight back after being ordered to keep beach with links to John John Florence open on Sundays

“For 155 years, we have closed our beach on Sunday mornings to honor God – a core pillar of this community."

In the otherwise dreary year of 1986, a pretty sixteen-year-old girl broke out of the shackles of her upbringing in a Christian seaside community in New Jersey called Ocean Grove, and split for the North Shore.

That was Alex Florence who’d go on to birth a two-time world champ, John John, the reigning surfer of the year, Nathan, and the coolest of them ‘em all, a man so sexy he makes your hair stand up and your stomach turn to buttermilk, skate-surf maestro Ivan.

Ocean Grove, established by Methodists in 1869, is, also known as “God’s Square Mile.” You can’t buy booze, the Christian flag (red cross on a white banner) flaps near the beach and wooden crosses have been dug into the sand. Even the pier is in the shape of a cross.

And, for surfers, who want a little taste of those occasionally epic hurricane-generated tubes, well, it ain’t gonna happen on a Sunday morn when, by all rights, you should be giving it to Jesus in church.

Y’see, as a mark of the community’s piety, the beach is closed until midday on Sunday although that rule was overturned by the state last October when the Department of Environmental Protection ordered ‘em to stop close the beach Sunday or else risk twenty-five gees a day in fines.

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which owns the beach, appealed the decision and lost.

“All members of the public are welcome [onto the beach] 365 days a year. Anyone, regardless of race, creed, religion or orientation is welcome onto this private property 99.5% of the year,” the Association argued.

Now, the joint is open, temporarily, while the group continues to fight the decision.

“For 155 years, we have closed our beach on Sunday mornings to honor God – a core pillar of this community since the founding of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association,” the group’s said in a statement. “We are challenging this order to preserve our property rights and religious freedom.”

I kinda like the idea of no pressure Sundays, ain’t no need to wake up for the early, but also the notion that I might slip into an empty tube while the good burghers of Ocean Grove are getting their fix in church.