When I get complaints

I KNOW. It’s hard to imagine me getting complaints, given the fact that I don’t take positions on controversial topics in the Bible reference books I write. Instead, I try to objectively report the various ideas and the reasons behind them.

Oddly enough, that’s often why I get complaints.

Readers pick one of the reported positions that they don’t like, and they assume it’s mine. Then they write a note to chew me out, sometimes kindly, sometimes not so much.

Here’s my policy about dealing with complaints:

I answer every reader who writes.

Once.

I don’t get into the pen pal mode, except on rare occasions. There are some readers with whom I enjoy sharing ideas. I learn from them. And I hope they learn from me. But for the most part, it’s one and done.

So if you have a complaint, like the gentle spirit who wrote me recently, kindly asking me to stop telling my readers that the first generation of Christians worshiped on Sunday, get it all out of your system in the first round. Because I’ll come back to you just once, most likely.

One reason for that: I’ve got books to write.

Another reason that’s all too common: I don’t always have a position on the matter folks are writing about. There’s a lot of “I don’t know” in my faith. And a lot of “in God I trust.”

Fortunately for me, readers seem to be more kind than critical.

That’s Christian of them. Much appreciated.