How diversity cops actually reduce diversity

Very far from the Bible Belt but very close to the culture war is the Christian community of Ocean Grove, N.J. The beachfront town is an anomaly: A bit of red in a state that tends blue. It was founded in 1869 by the Methodist Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which owns all the town's land. It's a place where the beach is closed on Sundays between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., a place where alcohol still isn't sold.

It's also the target of the first homosexual-union civil rights complaint since New Jersey recognized the unions last year.

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At issue is the association's Boardwalk Pavilion, on which the homosexual complainants want to hold a same-sex union ceremony. Not wanting its private property used for such an objectionable purpose, the religious organization has refused. Now it is being investigated by the state of New Jersey (our tax money at work).

As legal leverage, the homosexual activists note that the association accepted disaster relief funds from the federal government after their boardwalk was damaged in a hurricane and, when applying for a tax break under a state program, claimed its facilities were open to the public.

(Point of interest: In a town meeting about this controversy, Jim Cramer, "Mad Money" man and local resident, was waving an "equal rights" flag in support of the homosexual interlopers. Well, booyah! – his stock has just dropped in my eyes.)

Now, disaster relief is available to everyone, but that still leaves us with the "public accommodation" matter. Many may point out that the association's facilities are now akin to a restaurant or store, and, as such, it may not discriminate in ways unpalatable to Big Brother. And, in truth, this does bring to light a larger issue: the fact that we long ago lost our freedom of association.

Not only is this right implied in our Constitution, it's hard to consider yourself a free people without it. Yet we accept government dictation with respect to whom we may hire, fire and serve. And should you run afoul of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, get ready to spend half your treasure on legal defense.

In justifying this politically correct paradigm, people will speak of "invidious discrimination" and diversity, but it's all pap. No matter how much lipstick you lather on this pig, it still looks like tyranny. We accept it, though, because those oligarchs euphemistically called Supreme Court Justices once ruled that establishments open to the public are "public accommodations."

But there is nothing public about private property. Everyone understands that I have a right to include in or exclude from my home anyone I please; if I want to allow only blacks or whites or smokers or candlestick makers, that's my business. Why should I lose that right simply because I decide to erect a few more tables and sell food?

It's as if no good deed goes unpunished. Accommodating the public should be appreciated; instead, it now means you lose some of your property rights.

It's also part of the big government game. One may fault the association for accepting government funds, but there's a process here. First, the government extracts an exorbitant amount of money from people and offers part of it back in the form of programs, grants, tax breaks or subsidies. If you don't accept it, you get little for the tribute you pay. When you do bite the apple, however, it's a pact with the devil. You're then told that he who pays the piper, calls the tune, and you now must accept social engineering. Of course, the statists are paying the piper with their victims' money.

It's steal the worm, bait the hook, wait for a nibble, then reel in tradition. It gives a whole new meaning to "fishers of men."

While freedom of association is trumped partially in the name of diversity, the elimination of the right actually reduces diversity. Why? Consider this: In a free environment, establishments take on the flavor preferred by their owners, creating a private-sector pastiche. But because government now forces every "public accommodation" into a cookie-cutter mold, this is no longer the case. Thus, institutions with a religious atmosphere have become rarer and there are fewer single-sex schools to choose from, to mention just two examples.

In other words, by forcing every unit of society to accept the same leftist model of internal diversity – thereby making its composition similar to every other – every unit becomes largely the same.

Ocean Grove is one of many victims of the leftists' Borg-like assimilation. It has already been robbed of much of its identity and unique flavor, as a 1981 court action forced it to allow automobile traffic on its roads on Sundays and to disband its police force and municipal court. And the tolerant diversity police march on, securing a world of sameness.

But this social engineering will have its beneficiaries. Once we're all identically diverse, you won't be able to enjoy the cultural collage that once was America, but the Velvet Mafia's minions will feel at home no matter where they may go.

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Selwyn Duke is a columnist who has been featured in the American Conservative magazine and is a regular guest on the Michael Savage show.