“When God Is Silent But Present” by Jerrell Williams (July) was worth my consideration, yet I physically reacted when he compared God’s silence to sleep training their child by staying visible and being present as the child cried itself to sleep. No holding or singing? No tactile reassurance, just a dark vision across the room? All I felt when reading this approach was abandonment and rejection. Comparing this to God’s silence gives me no comfort and almost questions the whole article. I prefer my vision of God as holding, caring and loving (although perhaps silently) rather than as unreachable and unmoving.

Lloyd Kaufman, Des Moines, Iowa