A few days after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination during his 2004 Illinois Senate campaign, he sat down for an interview with Cathleen Falsani, a religion columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times. Falsani wrote a 2004 column based on the interview, but the full transcript appeared only recently on Steven Waldman's Beliefnet blog. Christianity Today subsequently reprinted it.

The Directorate of Communication has issued a press release entitled "Council of Europe launches manuals on hate speech and wearing religious symbols in public," which, coincidentally, outlines this post.

At Religion Dispatches, Sarah C. Moore discusses the religious right's response to Tom Daschle’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The New York Times reports that Pope Benedict XVI has expressed doubts about whether interreligious dialogue, "in the strict sense of the word," is really possible.

A central theme that emerges from President-elect Obama's statements about how his faith connects to his politics is the message that, "I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, we are all children of God." Observers have consistently connected this ethic of solidarity to an interest in promoting the "common good"---through one's community and through public policy. How have these themes become intertwined, and what might a commitment to solidarity and the "common good" mean for politics and policy during Obama's presidency?

In an interview with Religioscope, Michael Hastings Black discusses how new media can help the image of Islam in the United States.

Jim Sleeper discusses "why Barack's victory makes prospects brighter for Christians, Muslims and Jews" at Reset Dialogues on Civilization.

This Thursday, in the face of a recession and a national political transition, we will all break, take a four day weekend, and stare the obesity epidemic in the eye as we go on a turkey binge. But before our first delicious forkful of patriotic gluttony, we will each be asked what we are thankful for. So let us all be thankful, first and foremost, for the internet, which brings us this roundup of all things about Thanksgiving and faith.