Letters to the Editor

It is gratifying to learn the the General Board of Pension & Health Benefits (GBOPHB) took seriously the cries for justice by divesting from companies earning large profits from the industry of incarceration (Pension board divests from private prisons, Faith in Action, Jan. 9). This is a commendable decision and the applause merited.

I wonder, however, if GBOPHB will be as responsive to the outcry to divest from companies that enjoy large profits from the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Kairos Palestine document is being circulated widely, pleading for justice for Palestinians. Will our United Methodist general boards take a bold stand on this issue? Will our General Conference stand with justice?

With a heavy heart for the injustices which continue to plague Palestinians,

—Rev. Marilyn Stevens, Homer, New York

Thank you, Jim Winkler, for your article about Bishop Leontine Kelly (Word from Winkler, Faith in Action, Jan. 25)! She was, and is one Iron Lady of the Spirit. A truly electrifying preacher with soaring eloquence, she was, and is also a loving, gentle presence with engaging human touch.

Like you I still have goose bumps recalling how she invariably closed her sermon with those lines from "How Firm a Foundation."

She made a difference in all of us. She's a testimony to what God can do to dismantle racism's continued hold in the church and in society.

 —Vivencio (Ben) Vinluan, Covina, California

Sometime in the 1990s, Bishop Leontine Kelly came to Concord, N.C., to speak at the preaching mission at Central United Methodist Church. I was inspired by her sermons, but the phrase she spoke at an integrated women's luncheon I have quoted often. She said that none of her children had come home to tell her that they were gay, but she could not imagine loving them less, nor did she worship a God who did.

That statement has put an end to many a homophobic diatribe.

 —Anne Knight Watson, McClellanville, South Carolina