"A Wheaton College student was killed Saturday after being accidentally hit by a hammer during a hammer throw event at a track and field competition.Ethan Roser, 19, a freshman from the Cincinnati area studying to be a minister, was volunteering at the Wheaton College track and field competition when he was struck at about 4:15 p.m. He had just transferred to the school in January."
RGM note: I hope everybody at that college heaps love on the student athlete who threw the hammer and accidentally hit the other student. It can be nerve-racking enough to have to perform, compete, and try to excel while people stare and sometimes jeer from the bleachers. I can't even imagine.
Amen to that last comment. I believe Wheaton is in the Calvinist theological tradition, which may help somewhat. But then you just circle back to the theodicy problem. But generally, if this was going to happen, it's probably better that it happened at a Christian college, where there's a common vocabulary for discussing, if not understanding, such events.
ReplyDeleteBut that vocabulary can be used well or badly. Saying the event is "all part of God's plan" won't help much, I suspect; saying "we don't understand, but we know that God suffers with us when we suffer" may, at least a bit.