A tragic loss, and the question that follows
This is a commentary by an assistant professor of theology at St. Olaf College about the three students who were killed by a drunk driver a few weeks ago. His remarks left me flat. The professor seems to be saying that if God really wanted, He could prevent this kind of tragedy. But since we’ve been given us the gift of free will, we get a better deal than if he made it a perfect world because “… we are free to love and be loved.”
Huh? I must be missing something. What’s wrong with believing that God has no bearing (is powerless?) over the external daily events of our lives? Shit happens, and oft times, like this drunk driving accident, it’s a complex set of factors that contributes to the event. God’s laws –the laws of the universe, or God himself, if you prefer–are there for us to learn how to both prevent and deal with tragedy like this. (From all I’ve read, the adults at St. Olaf have done an admirable job of helping the students do this.) But my beliefs make God neither a teddy bear nor a Freudian pacifier as the professor states.
The professor also writes that “… love is the only proper response to tragedy.” Well, sure, but what about action? There’s a lot to be done about our country’s drunk driving laws. (For example, see today’s paper: MN Senate panel votes down 0.08 for drunken driving.) Or about the cultural and economic forces that contribute mightily to alcohol abuse. (Statistically, it won’t be long before a St. Olaf student who attended that memorial service gets drunk and gets behind the wheel of a car.) Or the dysfunctional families that are often part of the drunk driver’s problem.
I’ve teared up reading about and listening to reports about this St. Olaf accident because it hits so close to home. I’m grateful that my son survived his head-on with a wrong-way drunk driver. But I don’t believe God had anything to do with sparing him so I’m not grateful to God for that. I am grateful to God (my concept of who ‘he’ is) that his power has been available to help me see life differently since the accident. And to keep learning from it. And to do something about some of the factors that contributed to it.