Boston minister on marathon bombing: ‘For young adults, this is their 9/11’

When the Boston Marathon bombing occurred Monday, Robert Randolph, longtime minister for the Brookline Church of Christ, was providing an energy drink for his daughter Margaret Randolph, who was a few miles from the finish line.
Margaret Randolph had sprained her ankle and was running behind her normal pace, her father said.
Otherwise, “we would have been at the finish line when the bombs went off,” said Robert Randolph, who was accompanied by his wife, Jan, and other daughter, Kathleen.
Robert Randolph, who also serves as chaplain for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he was unaware of any members of Churches of Christ hurt in the bombing. The Brookline church is in the heart of Boston, not far from Fenway Park.
Randolph described Monday as a “terribly emotional day” for Boston.
“For young adults, this is their 9/11, even though it’s modest by comparison,” he said of Monday’s attack, which killed three people and wounded more than 180.
“The hard part is the absence of culprits,” the minister said. “Without someone to identify (as the perpetrator), everyone lives knowing that it could happen again. That is a psychological toll not easily measured, but it is real.”