Richard takes a dim view of those who offer glib answers. “Some of the most appalling and frightening letters,” he writes, came from “some of the best Christians I knew.” Tracey must have done something to offend God, some said. Others suggested that her suffering was a “glorious building block . . . for her mansion [in heaven] when she dies.” Others wrote that his family was truly “blessed,” because “God only sends crosses to those who can bear them.” Or, more simply, that it is all a “mystery” that simply needed to be accepted, almost unthinkingly. Richard rejected these answers in favor of
...more
