There is an update on a religious organization's failure to comply with equal access laws:

'n what may have more symbolic consequences than monetary, the state's chief environmentalist Monday refused to renew a tax exemption for the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association's boardwalk pavilion, and the land directly under it.

In making the decision, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson allowed the property tax exemption for the rest of the boardwalk and beachfront property owned by the association.
The decision means that the association would have to pay property taxes on the pavilion and the land on which it sits for 2006 through 2008, said Neptune Tax Assessor Bernard Haney.


Haney said Monday that he did not yet know the value of the pavilion and land. The pavilion is a small part of the property classified as tax-exempt.
The tax exemption is granted through the DEP's Green Acres program and is designed to encourage private property owners to open their recreational land for public use. The association had enjoyed a tax exemption for all its boardwalk and beachfront property since the late 1990s.


Citing the association's application for the exemption and papers filed in the association's federal lawsuit against the state Division on Civil Rights, Jackson, in a letter to the Rev. Scott Hoffman, the association's chief administrative officer, said that she was denying the application for the pavilion property because "it is clear that the Pavilion is not open to all persons on an equal basis."'


APP.COM - No tax break for boardwalk pavilion | Asbury Park Press Online

Now, for those who would feel that this is an unfair attack on a church, please note that the pavilion in question is part of a public beach front and that the church had agreed to allow use of this area for the public use in exchange for tax exemption status.

This ones a 'no brainer'. The property is either 'open to the public' or it isn't. If they are keeping some of the public out, then it's not open to the public.

So, does that mean the Federation of American Rectal Thunder can hold its annual "Olympics Of Flatulence" contest there too?

I mean, c'mon.. open to the public means... well, open to the public...

At the beach front it should be okay. The scary part of this story that a church owns the town of Ocean Grove. People can own the homes, but then have a complicated leasing arrangement with church. The City of Neptune NJ administers Ocean Grove. The church does not have to perform civil union ceremonies in their chapel or auditorium. However, they could refuse to allow these ceremonies in other public areas within the town. The ironic part of this story is that it is the gay community that revived this town through home and business ownership. The church seems to love the money the gays and lesbians bring into the town.

Hmmmm... sounds like the Mormon Church and most of Utah.