Stuck in an endless line of bumper-to-bumper beach traffic, my frustration turned to fear when a dirty, disheveled man walked unsteadily toward my car. Instinctively, I locked my door and averted my eyes, hoping he’d move past me.

Instead he stopped beside my window and held up his hand printed sign. Feeling a bit ashamed, I glanced over at him and burst into laughter.

“Why lie? I want a beer” the crudely printed sign proclaimed.

The man’s sign summed up the skepticism many of us feel about anyone asking for a handout. I was tempted to reward his honesty, but unwilling to enable a habit that contributed to his poverty. I hesitated and he moved on, leaving me to examine the range of emotions I had experienced in less than a minute.

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Driving through Washington D.C. one Sunday morning, I spotted a church with a parking lot, which was jammed. I can’t recall the exact church now, but I think it was one of the Protestant denominations. However, I do remember wondering, “What do those people believe?“ “What’s that church look like inside?” “What’s their service all about?”

I was born and raised a Roman Catholic, drifted away after I graduated from college, and returned as a “recovering and practicing Catholic” some years ago.

As a professional interviewer – now as host of the PBS television series THIS IS AMERICA – I always seek out very basic information -- kind of a 101 course – on the guests and topics of our programs.

It was on that Sunday morning I was “inspired” (perhaps) to create a new television series. The series is called I BELIEVE. The premise is simple.

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Today, thousands of walkers in Washington D.C. will join national faith
leaders, ambassadors, civil rights icons and over 100 partnering
organizations in this completely apolitical "Gandhi style" Unity Walk broadcast
worldwide from Embassy Row. Past years' speakers have
included Rev. Mpho Tutu, Arun Gandhi, Lodi Gyari (the Dalai Lama's envoy),
and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Papal Nuncio to the Vatican.

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I still remember the night I fell in love with the Beatles. It was a summer night in 1970, and I was six years old. When I went to bed in our house in Maryland in those days, it was often to the sounds of my oldest brother Joe playing music in his room a few feet away down the hall.

One night, Joe put on “A Hard Day’s Night,” the soundtrack to the great Beatles film. Many people recall their first experience with the Beatles as cataclysmic, life changing, revolutionary. Like an atomic bomb, the Beatles supposedly destroyed everything that had once stood before, creating the future and a new landscape. Yet on that humid night in 1970, my six-year-old reaction was quite different. I didn’t think of war, revolution, my parents or drugs. I thought of a girl. I thought of Lisa, who lived next door. I was in love with Lisa, and I found that love reflected back to me in the music of “A Hard Day’s Night”. In hearing “And I Love Her,” “I Only Want to Dance With You,” and “If I Fell” from Joe’s room, my imagination took off. As Paul Quay had described, the woman opening herself up to a man and her giving – or rather, their mutual self-giving as an expression of love of God – John, Paul, George and Ringo offered the same message. Like intense and very effective prayer, you could feel God in their sound – the happy bounce of “I Should Have Known Better”; the mystical, hopeful solemnity of “Things We Said Today”; the orgasmic cries of “When I Get Home.” In those brilliant notes, I saw myself and Lisa dancing, laughing, kissing, being husband and wife. If this was revolutionary music, it was preaching a very old lesson: the power of love.

I recently listened to "A Hard Days Night" again, and while I did think of love and even Lisa again, I was staggered by another revelation: rock and roll is a Catholic art form. The connection between the two seemed so obvious, I felt like Chesterton when he was asked what he liked about Western civilization. He didn’t know where to start.

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Was this the holiest community ever?

It's a question I didn't expect to ask when I began researching Unexpected Grace: Stories of Faith, Science, and Altruism.

I was in New York City interviewing Courtney Cowart, one of two dozen theologians who were meeting at Trinity's Institute one-and-a-half blocks from the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. Forced to flee after the first tower fell, Cowart and the others were caught on the street and completely engulfed in the debris cloud from the second tower's collapse.

"There was nothing you could do to save yourself," Cowart recalled. "Your fate was just not in your own hands. And in that moment of helpless self-offering, I realized that I was emptied. I believe this created a space – a vessel if you will – where purpose could make its home in me."

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The greatest American religious leader you never heard of died recently. Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, founder of the international movement of Humanistic Judaism, and dubbed "the atheist rabbi" by Time magazine in 1965, was returning from dinner Saturday night in Essouria, Morocco, when his taxicab was hit by another driver, killing Wine and the taxi driver. But what made Wine’s life special enough that this all-too-common tragedy is worth noting nationally?

He worked no miracles; at least not the sea-parting, divine intervention variety he vigorously disbelieved in, for lack of scientific evidence. Wine’s works rather involved building a worldwide network of congregations for proudly atheist and agnostic Jews. Organizing atheists is often compared to herding cats, and most Americans see Judaism as a monotheistic religion: but this U.S. Army Chaplain in the Korean War, trained as a Reform Rabbi by the prestigious Hebrew Union College, had a different vision. He asserted that Judaism is a culture, which is why it can claim famous doubters from Freud to Woody Allen to Theodore Herzl, not to mention the 49 percent of American Jews today who say they are not Jewish by religion. Wine powerfully preached that we might all take pride in our culture, while affirming the equality of all human beings as part of a Humanist worldview.

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The recent decision of the British government to confer knighthood on Salman Rushdie, the controversial writer of the book “Satanic Verses”, has raised protests among Muslims. Most protesters are asking for his head and claiming that such is the punishment for all people who are guilty of blaspheming against the prophet of Islam, God’s mercy be on him. Since I believe that the demand is un-Islamic, I am giving my arguments to prove my point of view.

The demand for Salman Rushdie’s head is based on two arguments: After having written his book, he has become guilty of apostasy (irtidad) the punishment for which in Islam, according to the argument, is death. Therefore Salman Rushdie must die. The other argument is that since the punishment of any person, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, who blasphemes against the prophet of Islam is death and Salman Rushdie has clearly done so, he must get killed. Are these two claims correct? There are some other issues that are associated with the above two: Even if it was granted for the sake of discussion that Salman Rushdie deserved death according to the Islamic law, can Muslims be incited to kill him even when he was living under the protection of the law of another country? And if Britain was not operating under the Islamic law, could Muslims still go after his life in the British territory according to that law, which Britain is not governed by? Could he be punished without him going through a proper trial in which he was allowed to defend himself?

Before I touch upon this subject and give my understanding on the two arguments mentioned above, I would like to emphasize two important issues Muslims must not ignore in this debate.

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Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. That includes the right of individuals to practice, preach and proselytize without fear of persecution or retribution.

Over the centuries, thousands of missionaries have braved persecution, discrimination, wars, revolutions, inclement weather and tropical diseases to bring the word of their God to others, convinced that their actions were justified in the name of a greater good. Yet, in the past the only lives imperiled by the missionaries were usually only their own.

Today, however, with changing norms, the actions of a few can severely affect precarious geopolitical situations, and in the process force the hand of governments into regrettable and/or embarrassing situations. This begs the question of just how valuable – or detrimental – to society as a whole, proselytizing becomes in areas of recognized dangers, such as countries engaged in war zones. Should this practice not be put into question when those who set out to convert others venture into troubled parts of the planet, and in so doing place not only their own lives in danger, but also the lives of many others.

A case in point was the work undertaken by the group of 22 South Korean Protestants who made recent headlines when they were kidnapped – and two of them subsequently killed – by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

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Attempting to take the measure of notable public figures too soon after their passing is no small challenge. Too often, our contemporary viewpoint lacks a perspective that only time and reflection can bring.

Having acknowledged that, I will be surprised if historians examining the ministry career of Dr. D. James Kennedy do not describe him with words like “visionary,” “reformer” and “innovator.”

The innovation for which Dr. Kennedy will most be remembered is Evangelism Explosion. Frustrated with his efforts to explain his faith to others early in his career, in the early 1960s he developed a method of conversational evangelism that uses diagnostic questions to assess a person’s understanding of the Gospel.

As Dr. Kennedy trained lay members in his own church to use this conversational approach to evangelism, the church began to grown dramatically. For many years, the church he founded was the fastest growing Presbyterian church in America.

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Many of your Jewish colleagues will not be at work on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – the “High Holidays.” They also will not be at the mall or the movies or any of the other places people often go to on a day off.

They will be engaging in a process that is at the core of this season in the Jewish calendar, but is actually a universal idea: the profound need to elevate ourselves from where we are, to look at our failings, and to resolve to do better. As we start a new year, we look at the old one, to see where we have been and to determine where we are going.

In Hebrew, this process is called teshuvah – “return” or “turning.” The process of teshuvah teaches us how to change our direction and change ourselves.

The awareness of the need for change may come upon us suddenly, as if someone shined a bright light into our eyes in the middle of the night and wrenched us out of a deep sleep. Or it may develop over time, like a sunrise that wakes us gradually, so that we cannot pinpoint exactly what time it was when our surroundings became clearly visible. It may emerge as a pervasive feeling of sinfulness, or it may reflect a more nagging sense that we are just not living up to what we expect of ourselves.

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Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, is taking the Food Stamp Challenge during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He is living on the Food Stamp allowance of $21 for the week. He is keeping a diary and blogging during this time.

Jewish tradition demands that we leave the corners of the field and the gleanings of our crops for the poor and the stranger. The Torah prescribes a special tithe for the stranger, the orphan, the widow and the Levites. Deuteronomy says unequivocally in the name of G-d: “There shall be no needy among you.” One only need walk down the streets of any major urban area to see that we have failed to do as we are commanded.

With Rosh Hashanah past and Yom Kippur looming, I look inward. How have I met my obligations to G-d? Where have I failed? How can I improve next year? It is with those questions swirling in my head that I am currently undertaking the Food Stamp Challenge to highlight the problems with the current assistance system and kick off JCPA’s year long campaign.

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Despite a constitutional resistance to using superlatives, in this case, the use of two in a single line is not only justified but holds the key to understanding the most common practice connected to Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. And its popularity is not even limited to Jews.

Called the Sabbath of Sabbaths by the Hebrew bible, Yom Kippur is often labeled the holiest day of the year. But it’s most popular ritual is not going to the synagogue, it’s not fasting, and it’s not hearing the final blast of the ram’s horn which ends the tens days of repentance in the Hebrew calendar. The most popular and I believe holiest moment of the holiday occurs when friends and family gather, as they will all across the world this Saturday night, to break the fast with a joyous feast, even with those who have not been fasting!

Why do so many people eagerly attend a break fast meal, even if they have not observed the fast itself or any of the other holiday traditions? It’s not simply because they are looking for a free bagel with lox and cream cheese. They are drawn by a wonderful intuition tapping directly into the spiritual message of Yom Kippur. They are there because they know what so few are taught by most religious leaders, that Yom Kippur is a joyous day which reminds us that any God worthy of our belief loves us unconditionally, is ready to forgive any wrongdoing doing, and always offers another chance.

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In Jewish practice, Yom Kippur is referred to as the Day of Atonement. At this time and together with a community in a synagogue, each person repents for transgressions committed against God in order to achieve atonement. For transgressions committed against another person, however, atonement occurs only if he/she repents (makes an apology) to the offended person and asks for pardon or forgiveness. The offended party, in return, should then offer forgiveness and not hold a grudge.

There is a parallel message in the New Testament, Matthew 5:23-24, “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there for the altar and go; first to be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift."

Since I am not a rabbi but a psychiatrist who has studied the apology process for 15 years, I will attempt to elaborate on the apology process between two individuals or groups.

Each apology is a unique event since each individual and each offense is unique in its own way. Still, there are some general principles about apology which are useful. First, there are usually three parts to an apology: an acknowledgment of the offense, an expression of remorse, and reparations when applicable. The most common failure of an apology, which makes the effort a non-apology, is the failure to properly acknowledge the offense. We may state the offense in vague terms so it is not clear to what we are admitting, we may use the passive voice thereby avoiding saying what we did, we may preface the offense with “alleged” or “if, we may say “we are sorry” but not say what we are sorry about, we may minimize the offense, and on and on and on. Without some communication of shame, remorse, and forbearance, the apology will not seem real. Finally, reparations when appropriate must be offered.

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One of my favorite Jewish jokes -- and I grew up in New Jersey hearing a lot of them -- involves the old Jewish man who was shipwrecked on a desert island and is finally rescued after being stranded for years. Before leaving the island, he offers his rescuer a tour.

On this end of the island, he says (and the audio version of this joke might be better than the written variety) there is one shul. And here, on the other end of the island, is the other.

His rescuer is confused: "How can this be? You've been living alone on this island for 20 years. Why in the world do you have two synagogues?"

"To that one, I wouldn't go," the man replies.

I think of this joke often at this time of year, because my own family has turned into a something of a living example of to-that-one-I-wouldn't-go-ism. As it happens, my two younger brothers and I all live in the Washington area, and it didn't take too long after the grandchildren arrived for my parents to decamp from the Garden State to move here too.

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As the world watches the terrible eruption of violence between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and is subjected to sporadic communiqués by vigilantes calling for violence against their opponents within the Muslim community and without, many who are unfamiliar with Islam and Muslims may be forgiven for thinking the worst of both the religion and its followers. Yet within Islam and Muslim history, the precedent for religious co-existence is primordial.

The Qur’anic view of the carpenter from Nazareth is clear: Jesus is called the Spirit of God, and the Messiah. Moses is described as the prophet to whom God spoke directly, without any veil. Muslims still revere those men, and their followers are accorded special places within the book of Islam.

The Arabian Prophet, Muhammad, sent according to Islamic tradition as a “mercy to all the worlds”, showed us how these theological abstractions were exemplified in practice in the first interfaith meeting between Muslims and Christians -- held some 14 centuries ago.

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On Sunday the New York Times reported on the recrudescence of "faith-based" teaching in Russian public schools:

A teacher named Irina Donshina set aside her textbooks, strode before her second-graders and, as if speaking from a pulpit, posed a simple question:

"Whom should we learn to do good from?"

"From God!" the children said.

"Right!" Ms. Donshina said. "Because people he created crucified him. But did he accuse them or curse them or hate them? Of course not? He continued loving and feeling pity for them, though he could have eliminated all of us and the whole world in a fraction of a second."

This grisly vignette, which almost perfectly summarizes the relationship between sadism and masochism in Christian teaching, probably wouldn't delight all those who think that morality derives from supernatural authority. After all, the Russian Orthodox Church was the patron of Czarist autocracy, helped spread The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to the West, and compromised with the Stalin regime just as it had been allied with earlier serfdom and chauvinism. It is now part of Vladimir Putin's sinister exercise in the restoration of Russian supremacism and dictatorship: an enterprise that got off to a good start when our President admired Mr. Putin's crucifix and "looked into his soul". (Question: has Putin ever been seen wearing that crucifix again, or did his cynical advisers tell him that the Leader of the Free World was such a pushover for the "faith-based" that he would never check?)

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