Bay View Discriminates? Hardly.

May 26, 2018

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

For well over 140 years, the residents and members of Bay View, a summer resort community formed by a group of Methodists on the shores of Lake Michigan near Petoskey have been enjoying the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by the First Amendment to the Constitution of The United States — arguably the most important document ever drafted.

In recent years, however, the Bay View Association has been under attack, partially from within, and culminating recently with several articles detailing a letter written by John Meade, enforcement branch chief of the Midwest Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In his letter, Meade states that the organization has failed to meet the burden to prove Bay View’s exemption from the federal Fair Housing Act. “The investigation into the violations alleged by the Complainants shall now commence," Meade wrote. Those “alleged violations” refer to requirements of the private organization, including but not limited to potential owners who are required to be of the Christian faith to purchase or own cottages located within the encampment and situated on the association’s privately held property.

For comparison, a July 2017 edition of Town and Country Magazine featuring Lauren Waterman’s article, “The Cult Of The Jewish Summer Camps,” which romanticizes the dozens of religious camps offered exclusively for children and teens of the Jewish faith. An interesting section in the article states that “Many of these early camps might be described as incidentally observant — they were Jewish because their campers were — while later camps were more likely to be explicitly so.”  The statement is especially relevant as it mirrors a point of contention that Bay View’s bylaws did not specifically include the “Christian only” clause until the 1940s. 

Prior to a specific period in our nation’s history, people were naturally prone to join clubs and organizations that represented their personal interest and faiths. They were also generally respectful of the rights of others involved in a similar pursuit. Historically, when these considerations are not observed or returned is when situations have become toxic.

Northern Michigan has a long history of private summer retreats and associations centered around religion, health, wealth, and other special interests, each with their own specific restrictions and requirements — but few compare with Bay View’s long, diverse, and welcoming legacy.

From the earliest days of the organizations incarnation, Bay View has enriched its neighboring communities with culture, entertainment, reading groups, theater, opera, lectures/speeches, etc., all in keeping with the pillars of the Chautauqua resort movement, an affiliation and philosophy adopted in 1886 by the encampment that continues to this day. All programs and performances offered seasonally in Bay View have always been open to the public at large — and always without bias.

Guests and featured presenters at Bay View have included Helen Keller, Madame Shumann-Heinke, and Booker T. Washington. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was a dominant leader in the African-American community. In 1942, violinist Hugo Gottesmann joined the faculty of the Bay View Summer College of Liberal Arts. Gottesmann taught violin and performed as soloist and leader of the string quartet. He emigrated to the United States after he was fired from his positions at Radio Wien, the Vienna Symphony, and the Academie für Musik because of his Jewish heritage, following Hitler’s taking office in Germany in 1933. Hugo’s music and legacy continue to be celebrated along with an endless list of other notable pioneers of social change that have been featured by the progressive community over the years. 

I have reason to question the integrity of the two primary complainants in the present lawsuit against Bay View — first for declaring a combined 135 years of attendance and “love of the “idyllic community” while failing to grasp the reality that their actions serve to undermine and likely eliminate the very institutions that have allowed Bay View to exist as an exemplary and progressive resort community for almost a century and a half.  And secondly, for the obvious omission that Bay View’s longheld requirements, or affiliation to the church, have caused them any personal, moral, or ethical conflicts during their aforementioned decades in residence — just the repeated complaints offered to the media pertaining to the transfer or sale of their own cottages. Without the financial support, programing, infrastructure, and core belief system supported by the presence of the Methodist church and shared by the overwhelming majority of their residents, Bay View would have ceased to exist as anything other than a small group of cottages decades ago while also eliminating the ability of the organization to carry out its ambitious and peaceful agendas.

I also question the integrity of the attorney for the opposition. It seems she is fully capable of interpreting the First Amendment as it pertains to the alleged 18 complainants, while simultaneously ignoring the rights of over 400 other cottage owners and the thousands of non-members of all persuasions and ethnic and religious backgrounds that embrace and enjoy the programs and traditions Bay View offers annually.

The lawsuit against Bay View is an attack upon the first amendment — a Pandora's box that threatens to set a precedent that could quite potentially impact every church, fraternal organization, private resort, Chinatown, Greek Town, or Little Italy, along with any other institution, religious or otherwise, that has specific requirements for membership or inclusion.

Bay View, one of the oldest communities in existence in northern Michigan, has striven to better the area in which its inhabitants reside while always being observant and respectful of the rights of others to follow suit, regardless of their affiliations.

Being accepting of others’ traditions, opinions, or religious beliefs, along with the celebration of diversity, is what deters discrimination — not the elimination of the reciprocal right of all to associate or peacefully assemble with individuals that share a common set of values or interests.

Christopher Struble is the president of The Michigan Hemingway Society, owner of a small local business, a historian, and avid outdoorsman residing in Petoskey.