THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
``We have a bitter complaint to lay before you,'' Pastor Edward Stoltzfus said, addressing the Almighty Sunday at a memorial service for Alicia Showalter Reynolds.
The 25-year-old Baltimore doctoral candidate in medical research disappeared two months ago outside Culpeper as she traveled to Charlottesville to meet her mother. Posters with her picture now blanket western Virginia. Her slain body was discovered last week.
``We simply do not understand why Alicia was caught in such a vicious and violent evil,'' continued Stoltzfus. ``Where were you in this tragedy?''
It is the eternal question for people of faith. If there is a higher power, why does it not intervene to save deserving individuals from unspeakable tragedy? Clearly Reynolds, who is described by friends as exemplary and who was preparing with her young husband for an overseas ministry, would have been on anyone's list of those who are earning the right to life.
As striking as the horror of Reynolds' death is the spirit in which her family has received it. Throughout the 66 days that she was missing, her parents spoke movingly of the sense of community and faith that sustained them. In learning of her death, the family counseled against responding with violence or hate.
``We have read in the news that, because of this case, many people are buying guns. Alicia would not want that. Her family does not want that. We believe in another way,'' said her aunt, Shirley Hershey Showalter, at the memorial service. ``We believe that the way to fight violence is to drop weapons and hold hands.''
She continued: ``We must not passively accept evil. We must name it and fight it, not with weapons and not barricading ourselves behind locked doors and barbed wire. We fight evil by loving each other, educating each other and, even more, by building relationships across the boundaries that separate us.''
Some would consider that response naive. Others would add that the Showalters' own experience proves a loving attitude cannot outweigh a cruel world. And still others will raise the age-old question of why an omnipotent presence would not protect those who have offered their trust.
For nonbelievers, the answer will be easy. God does not exist. For believers, the purpose in Alicia Reynolds death may remain an unfathomable mystery.
But no more mysterious perhaps than the inner strength that allows a family to respond to heartbreak with superhuman grace. by CNB