Opinion

Prefer to keep God out of our tragedies

Posted August 07, 2009 11:00 pm

The Daily Herald reported on July 31 that 45 soldiers from the Illinois National Guard Delta Company were welcomed home in Woodstock, and Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager told a cheering crowd, "Today we celebrate answered prayers." Nothing disturbs me more than to hear a comment like that.

Sadly, four soldiers did not return because they had been killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb that blasted their vehicle. Did their prayers and those of their families go unanswered by God while he did answer the prayers of those who survived? And how and why did God pick out the four soldiers who were slaughtered and their families, and choose not to answer their prayers?

My own view is that the God we respect and worship would never act so arbitrarily as to favor some of our soldiers in combat and disfavor others. I much prefer to keep God out of our tragedies, and I believe the fact that some of our troops were saved while others were not is simply something that happened at random.

Theodore M. Utchen

Wheaton

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