10/29/2018
The Pittsburgh synagogue mass shooting by a bigot with a semi-automatic assault weapon brought back to me the grief and urgent need to act I felt after the similar mass shooting hate crime at the Pulse LGBT club in Orlando. The name of the Pittsburgh congregation is the Tree of Life, which made me recall my mentioning this biblical image in the middle of my homily that I wrote for and shared at the DC interfaith vigil for those who had been killed, injured, or otherwise harmed in the Orlando shooting. I was moved to revisit myself and then share with you all below my words from that vigil two years ago. I hope that they may offer you all a Humanist perspective on such mass shooting hate crimes and our possible responses to such.
Orlando Mass Shooting Interfaith Candlelight Vigil in Washington, DC - 6/15/2016
Reflections of Rabbi Binyamin Biber - Humanist Chaplain at American University
Shalom aleikhem. Salaam aleikum. Peace be unto us all, and may we radiate its healing and transformative power out into our world.
I am an out-bi rabbi who serves as the humanist chaplain at American University, and our student community there includes assorted humanists, secularists, & atheists. Thus, I was asked by the leaders of several like-minded national groups to represent nontheists here tonight, and we deeply appreciate our being included.
We too extend our aching hearts and helping hands to those who suffer from injuries and trauma, to those who grieve the loss of family, friends, & loved ones, and to all who feel fear in the wake of such hatred and violence.
Let us draw together our energies & efforts to help our sisters & brothers in pain. Let us radiate out our powerful and healing love to displace hate, to help the disturbed & despairing, &, as best we can, to remove from among us violence & the weapons of war. Let us shine forth the beautiful diverse rainbow of our light to dispel darkness.
Our shared human origins and experiences connect us all to one another. We humans are all one family, made up of the same constellating stardust, life-sustaining water, gleaming sunshine, and species-defining DNA. As ultra-social beings we continue to evolve our empathy & reason that can empower our hearts & minds to come together in compassion & understanding.
As we learn more about ourselves, our planet, & the cosmos, we grow in our abilities to create our better selves & a better world together. Our diversity is the natural fruitfulness of the tree of life. We come in an ever-blending spectrum of colors & shapes, beliefs & doubts, hopes & fears, attractions to others & expressions of selfhood.
Let us celebrate & defend our human diversity & our very lives by reaching out with love toward the neighbors & strangers of our world, seeking to make us all into the family & friends we can be by our nature.
Let us each shine forth into the world our little lights of love & learning & good works to dispel the darkness of hate & ignorance & violence.
We can & we must turn as many hearts & minds as possible toward one another in empathy & understanding to allow us to move forward together in action.
Such are the threads of Humanism - religious & secular, spiritual & scientific - that are our common heritage, &, in times joyous & sorrowful, our sources of insight & inspiration, of health & strength, of peace & justice.
Together let us weave these threads of our common humanity into an expansive & welcoming canopy of pluralism, peace, & progress that can benefit & shelter all current & future generations.
May it be so. Let us work together to make it so.
Thank you for taking a moment to read these words and to find some measure of hope in them to move us to act and go forward together.
The Chaplaincy helps students to explore Humanism, to put into action its progressive values, & to connect with each other, the community, & the movement.
