Today is the first day of the Weekend in Old Monmouth program that opens 43 historic sites throughout the county looking at our heritage. It is a heritage we all share, whether our ancestors were on these shores long ago or whether newcomers as refugees from Ukraine, Afghanistan, or any of a number of countries that have given us the people who now live here.
Much of New Jersey was settled by Baptists and Quakers, people committed to the freedom of religious belief we have enshrined in the Constitution. The 1702 document that established the Colony of New Jersey made religious freedom a centerpiece.
Tolerance and acceptance of the many varieties of religious expression is foundational to us as a people and a Nation. It’s who we are, or certainly should be.
Prayer for the Day
Open our eyes, O God, so we may truly see you,
In the world about us, even where we least expect you;
Open our ears, O God, so we may truly hear you,
Through your Word, even when we do not recognize it.
Open our minds, O God, that we may truly understand you,
As we search for knowledge and wisdom.
Open our hearts, O God, that we may truly love you,
And live in the world as you would have us live.
In the name of the One who came to open us to you,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia Bd. Of Education v. Barnette
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or abridging 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.
Amendment I, U.S. Constitution
May God grant me to speak with judgment,
And to have thoughts worthy of what I have received;
For God I the guide even of wisdom and the corrector of the wise.
Wisdom of Solomon 715