Are you part of my tribe?

The rabbi of the local temple near me has put out a newsletter expressing the pain that his congregation and all congregations must be feeling following the massacre of last weekend in Pittsburgh. It has troubled me greatly that our country’s leadership has not stepped forward to offer more words of healing. But we must understand that this assault on the covenant of worship of believers is an attack on every congregation everywhere.

It is a shame that we have become so tribal in our beliefs and find ways to exclude and demean rather than include and welcome others. I find no scripture to support exclusion.

I hope you will take some active steps in the healing of this wound to our common and diverse corporate worship. At a minimum, we can express our empathy to our Jewish friends or rabbis and let them know that we are in solidarity with them on this issue.