As I meet and interview people of faith — trained clergy and laity — I consciously and unconsciously size them up on their intellects. Has education and rigorous intellectual training shaped what they believe and why they believe? Or are they primarily ardent believers and embracers of their particular tenets out of common transference — being born into or marrying into a belief system and, in some ways, just being blind followers?A persistent danger is to block out anything that runs counter to our tidy theology. A refusal to know more about other faiths or religious forces may solidify our beliefs, but it builds walls of distrust and ultimate conflict.

Bill Moyers ranks near the top of people I have come to admire for being a sound thinker and making religion an exercise for thoughtful study. The one-time press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson matured as an author and longtime probing host of public affairs shows on Public Television shows, most recently in the must-watch Friday PBS show “NOW.” He left NOW last year to reportedly do the definitive work on the confounding LBJ.

On June 25, Moyers will begin a seven-week PBS series called Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason. It is being promoted this way: Bill Moyers and the worlds storytellers confront pressing questions facing a world divided over God and religion.

In the same tradition of his seminal interview series with theologian Joseph Campbell on The Power of Myth, in the 1980s, Moyers, 72, is embarking again on another adventure in his deep-think journalism approach to great ideas.

His first session will be with author Salman Rushdie who raises the question, What kind of god is it thats upset by a cartoon in Danish? - a reference to the world protests to Danish newspaper cartoons that contained images of Muhammad, something Muslims find offensive.

The series will raise these questions as well as: Is the vision of religious tolerance just a Utopian dream? Are we destined to live out this century in a sectarian hell? In a world where religion is poison to some and salvation to others, how do we live together?

Among those he will interview are contemporary British fiction-writer Martin Amis, who notes, Were about eight Einsteins away from getting any kind of handle on the universe. A Canadian Margaret Atwood, when asked, Why didnt Jesus write anything?, responded, Because once you write something down, it become dogma.

And an Israeli, David Grossman, propounds, The Bible, thank God, is not politically correct.

Moyers intends to show listeners some of the depth of ideas of the writers with whom he visits, and he will explore their experiences to plumb new ways of thinking about the role of religion in shaping our world.

Say his publicists, Reverent, irreverent, thoughtful and often humorous, the program taps into an undercurrent in the national discussion and will resonate with the religious, the non-religious and those in between.

Look for the show at 2 p.m. Sundays, beginning June 25 on KAET-TV (Channel 8). Each show repeats at 10 p.m. Mondays.

The Roman Catholic Church of Phoenix on Friday loses its classy spokeswoman, Mary Jo West. After a fast three years as the public information officer for the diocese — being the face and voice for much of the “official word” from the bishop and others — this familiar Valley personality moves on. She takes her skills to Eddie Bashas food world where thank you for being a friend will be a phrase that will come easily to her.Since 1975, the Valley has watched Mary Jo hold her own and triumph through some pretty daunting assignments. As the Valley’s first female TV anchor at old KOOL-TV (now KSAZ-TV Channel 10), beginning in 1976 she showed her male chauvinist anchor colleague Bill Close that women — especially this one — had the talent and moxie to deliver the news. Coming right after CBS evening news with Walter Cronkite, KOOL had half the market for the local evening news, and Close didn’t think he needed the young blonde to help carry the newscast.

There was hell for me to pay, Mary Jo would say years later. He made my life difficult. For six years I sat next to a man who despised my being next to him.

Mary Jo, who later was known as First Lady of TV News in Phoenix, had gotten her start at KAET-TV (Channel 8). In 1982, she was recruited to go to New York and anchor a new overnight news show, Nightwatch, but soon found it wasnt a good job fit. So it was back to Phoenix and six years of anchoring of KTVK-TV (Channel 3). Between 1989 and 1995, Mary Jo served as station manager of Phoenix Channel 11, followed by a wide range of assignments in Phoenix, using her wide experience to communicate and promote. She was always in great demand as a mistress of ceremonies, as a singer and as a speaker in her advocacy work in mental health.

I recall about 13 years ago, I was given an assignment to interview five Valley people coping with various forms of mental illness. The articles were for a news section promoting the Seeds of Crisis state mental health conference that the Tribune helped sponsor.

Mary Jo West spent most of an afternoon telling me her story of battling depression. Candid and articulate, she laid out the mess that depression had made for her life. I came away amazed of the grit and tenacity of this woman to have gone through two divorces, depression and career trials, yet able to accomplish so much (A Peabody Award in reporting, two Emmys, 13 Arizona Press Club award and much more. She was the first newswoman inducted into the Arizona Broadcasters Hall of Fame.)

I gave her a ride in my pickup to the Channel 12 news station for an errand, and we talked about my newspaper column writing going back to the early 1970s. She wanted me to send her one I did about the beloved Chicago radio broadcaster, Franklyn MacCormick, who did the all-night Meister Brau Showcase on WGN Radio — memorable because he always started out his show reciting Elizabeth Barrett Brownings How do I Love Thee? poem against romantic music.

Mary Jo, raised a Baptist in Georgia, would become a Roman Catholic. It came as no surprise that amid the turmoil that the Phoenix Diocese went through in 2003, she was hired to bring maturity, news judgment and professionalism to the bishops office.

In the mop-up from the sexual misconduct by priests and the dramatic change of bishops who has set a different course, it surely has been infinitely tough to be a diocesan spokesman. Now a 55-year-old veterans PIO from the Archdiocese of Chicago, James Dwyer, will take the role come August.

The Chandler-based Bashas food empire will put Mary Jo to work. We’ll probably see her pop up in commercials. Eddie Basha and Mary Jo West in the same company. Thats some power team.

This fall off to nursing studies at Arizona State University, she sends her 18-year-old daughter, Molly, gotten as a baby from Honduras through the help of Mother Teresa whom she interviewed in 1988. A real time of transition at the West home.

So Mary Jo West, earnest overachiever, moves to yet another career, and we can only be amazed and admiring.

We go long stretches here in the Valley when no blatant acts of religious bigotry take place — at least ones that are reported or made public. But then two goons are caught on a security camera on Sunday posting an anti-Muslim sign on a Dumpster near the Islamic Community Center of Tempe. The sign attacked the Prophet Muhammad and claimed that Muslims Worship SatanPresumably some of the same people made their way to the Arizona office of the Council for American Islamic Relations in Phoenix where a sign in Arabic was attached to a window. It said, Mohammed Rasool Al Shaytan, which, translated, said, (The Prophet) Muhammad is the messenger of Satan. According to CAIR, that is a distortion of the common Islamic phrase referring to the prophet as a messenger of God. Police are investigating the incident and note that the perpetrators had more than a little cursory knowledge the Arabic language.

The fact that this person actually went to the mosque and to CAIRs office would seem to indicate a level of hostility that could potentially result in more than hate speech, said Bushra Khan, office manager of CAIR-AZ, calling for national authorities, including the FBI, to investigate it as a bias crime. Khan also noted that she was among Muslim women verbally abused in April in Scottsdale by a middle-age couple who vented after they had seen the film United 93,” which seeks to recreate the account of the plane hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

To its credit, the Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish watchdog organization, issued a statement Wednesday, saying it condemned the anti-Muslim slurs.

In America, the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of all people to worship as they choose, said Joel Breshin, associate director. This despicable act of religious bigotry committed against the Tempe Islamic Community Center is a hideous display of anti-Americanism that should outrage all people committed to the principles under which our republic was founded.

Put yourself in the shoes of Valley and American Muslims. Grieve with them as they seek to live true to their beliefs and the teachings of their faith, as they remain authentic to their culture and as they integrate into American and Arizona life. All ethnic groups have faced challenges of inculcating yet preserving that which makes them who they are. So many forces, not the least the media and news, give Muslims extra hurdles.

I have watched CAIR come a long way, locally and nationally, in providing measured responses to the litany of hate and thoughtless actions by others. They are more aggressive and vigilant, in the tradition of the ADL, to jump onto cases of perceived bias and hatred.

Its especially amazing to see the bone-headed actions by companies, still, to try to limit Muslims being themselves. We hail the federal judge in Arizona, Roslyn Silver, in her May ruling against Alamo Rent-A-Car. Bilan Nur, a Muslim woman, won her lawsuit, with the help of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Alamo had terminated Nur in December 2001 for refusing to remove her head scarf, or hijab, while waiting on customers. The order came a few months after 9/11 when her boss was skittish about what a conspicuous Muslim might project to customers. The judge ruled Alamo had made no effort to reasonably accommodate Nurs religious beliefs, nor did the company show it would have undue hardship from her dress.

This big country can accommodate and should celebrate such diversity.

An older relative of mine was recently conflicted because she had received a “resident” letter from Saint Matthew’s Churches in Tulsa, Okla., which contained a “Church Prayer Rug,” made of paper.The 11 by 17-inch paper “rug” contains a burgundy sketch of Christ with thorns on his head and his eyes closed and downcast. Surrounding it is an ornate Mideastern prayer rug design.

On the back was printed, “This Prayer Rug is soaked with the power of prayer for you. Use it immediately, then please return it with your ‘Prayer Needs Checked’ on our letter to you. It must be mailed to a second home that needs a blessing after you use it. Prayer works. Expect God’s blessing.”

If this “rug” is making the rounds of America, it surely showed no evidence of use — no creases from knees, no evidence of tears or sweat, no signs of fingers that would have spread it out.

At the very edge of the rug is this instruction: “Look into Jesus’ Eyes (sic) you will see they are closed. But as you continue to look you will see His eyes opening and looking back into your eyes. Then go and be alone and kneel on this Rug of Faith or touch it to both knees. Then please check your needs on our letter to you. Please return this Prayer Rug. Do not keep it.”

An accompanying letter addressed to “Dear … Someone Connected with This Address,” it makes up four pages with words bolded and underlined in red ink.

Here are some of the statements: “God’s Holy Blessing Power is in the enclosed anointed prayer rug we are loaning to you to use!!!”

“People just like you are writing to this 55-year-old church, telling us of all types of blessings since this church started praying with them. … Some are seeing loved ones saved and many of them are receiving spiritual, physical and financial blessings of all types — better jobs, raises in salaries, being able to buy and sell homes, buying new cars and so on. Actually, these dear people are receiving so many blessings that it is impossible to mention them all in a letter.”

It tells how “Sister Garcia” used the same type of “Bible faith prayer rug” and was blessed with almost $50,000.

The letter states that “something very wonderful is trying to come to you.” Among the instructions for using the rug is to go into a room alone, shut off radios and TVs and kneel on the rug or put it on your knees.

Then it says the next 24 hours are “crucial to you. Timing is important to God.” The letter should then be put into a Bible next to Philippians 4:19 and leave it over night. If one has no Bible, then the letter is to be put “under your side of your bed for tonight, if you can.”

Next morning the rug is to be immediately put into the mail with the checked-off prayer list “so we can rush it onto another family that’s in need of a blessing. Do this without fail. Please do not break this flow of power between us.”

The sketch of Jesus, by the way, is one of those where you stare intently at it and “you will see His eyes slowly opening. He will begin looking back at you. Jesus sees your needs (Philippians 4:19).

There are 13 specified areas for prayer, including a new car, a money blessing and “pray for God to bless me with this amount of money $____.”

At the end, it one may check the item: “Enclosed is my seed gift to God’s work of $_____.

Well, Saint Matthews, a “Bible ministry of prayer: established in 1951, won’t be getting the paper prayer rug back, my relative has decided. Just something about it all just doesn’t seem right, she said.