I am currently participating in an unprecedented encounter between a group of faith leaders from the world's most powerful nation and the world's largest Muslim population. I am a guest of both the United States government and the Foreign Ministry of Indonesia, writing this as the pre-dawn call to prayer echoes from so many mosques and so many directions that it's actually overwhelming. It's powerful, beautiful and makes clear that no matter how secular large swaths of the population are, there is no questioning that this is a Muslim country. It reminds me of Israel.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister through and through. From the images he invoked, to the cadence of his speech, to the values which shaped his every decision, Dr. King, whose life and work we honor today, was a public pastor with a ministry to all of America. The same can be said of Rev. Pat Robertson, but that is where the similarity ends, as we were once again reminded this week when Robertson offered his explanation for the Haiti earthquake.

Telling the millions who watch him on TV that the earthquake was part of God's ongoing retribution for Haiti's "deal with the devil" to free themselves of French domination hundreds of years ago, Robertson used his faith to address current events. Especially today, on the MLK holiday, I can't help but wish that Robertson was more like King.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is our newest national scapegoat, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Despite the bad rap it gets, scapegoating, when done properly, is actually a brilliant spiritual technology. Consider the Hebrew Bible's use of the scapegoat -- the original case from which the term derives its name.

Fox News commentator Brit Hume thinks that Tiger Woods needs Jesus in order to turn his life around, and he told us all so this weekend on Fox News Sunday. "The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith," Hume said. "He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So, my message to Tiger is, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

The response from more liberal media and the blogosphere is fascinating -- ranging from outrage to disgust. While I don't know that anyone needs Jesus, or any other particular faith including my own in order to get their lives straight, this should not be such a big deal. Sadly though, I think I know why it is and it doesn't speak well of people who think of themselves as open-minded even as they critique Fox for being less so.

Former President Jimmy Carter offered the following words in a letter addressed to the Jewish community: "We must recognize Israel's achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so."

The remarks should be welcomed especially in light of both the healing they could bring and the deep awareness of Jewish liturgical tradition which they reflect. I wonder in fact how many Jews would reach for the penitentiary prayer, Al Het ,as their model for public apology. Yet here we have a devout Baptist, sufficiently learned and comfortable in a tradition not his own, doing so. That alone is noteworthy.

Like many of Mr. Carters past comments, his words appear well-intentioned and sincerely offered. And yet, like so many of his past utterances, these latest mix profound sensitivity with much potentially unhelpful ideological baggage.

President Obama's Hanukkah greeting Friday was quite moving. But what's really interesting is to compare it with comments made five years earlier by President Bush.

Here are President Obama's words, along with the opening lines of President Bush's comments to those who gathered at the 2005 White House Hanukkah party. They not only make for a fascinating comparison, but also a wonderful invitation to consider the many ways in which individual religious narratives are deployed in public life today.

Chanukah (also spelled Hanukkah) 2009 begins December 11 and yet I will not greet everyone I meet for the succeeding eight days, from doormen and cashiers to cab drivers and train conductors with a big 'Happy Chanukah!', nor do expect such a greeting from them.

I also know that many of those same people will wish me a very merry Christmas, and I have not the slightest problem with it. In fact, I welcome sincerely offered good wishes from anyone, and fully appreciate that they are generally offered from the perspective of the one giving them, so why should it bother me?

I figure I may as well anger both sides up front, since my response to the just approved measure banning the construction of Minarets in Switzerland will no doubt disturb both those sympathetic to the move and those most deeply opposed to it. Neither side gets it right, though. The measure's supporters are generally fear-driven haters of Islam in general and all Muslims as a group, while the latter are too-often mindless apologists for a community whose internal crisis threatens us all.

This should be obvious. What's not to like about Thanksgiving? But for many Orthodox Jews it's not so obvious - a fact which speaks volumes to the thinking of many in that community. But what really makes this question interesting is that how one answers, regardless of one's religious affiliation, is the way in which the answer reveals how one thinks about Jews living in a largely non-Jewish culture. And ultimately, the same can be said for any religious or ethnic minority wrestling with its relationship to the larger American culture in which they live.

Every minority, including Jews, must ask if its identity is simply a function of difference from the larger culture, in which case the more popular something becomes in the larger culture, the more threatening it is. Or, can we imagine that things can be deeply embedded in other cultures as well and still be deeply and profoundly Jewish? Obviously, other religious and ethnic groups would substitute their group for Jewish, but the question remains the same. I am using 'Jewish' because that is the tradition I follow.

What's going on at Google is often a good way to get a handle on what's going on in America. Trends in search terms are signals of trends in the culture, and today brought some very bad news. Any time the citizens of a state, particularly a democracy, invoke their faith to pray for the demise of those they oppose politically, we should be concerned. When the call for such prayers becomes one of the most popular Google searches in the country, we should shake, especially those of us who believe in God, prayer and the Bible. Psalm 109, verse 8, went viral this morning, November 16, in just that way.

I have no reason to believe that New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd hates Jews, but after reading her November 11 column, many people are asking, and not without some justification. In writing about Goldman Sachs, the famously/infamously successful investment bank, Dowd dredged up ancient and dangerous motifs that have inspired hatred of Jews for 2000 years.