The American Spectator

The Nation's Pulse

I have been writing a weekly column for a number of years now, and yet I can still be surprised by the kind of written reactions I get. These letters fall into two broad categories, the public and the private. Public letters get written to the Spectator and published in the Spectator's letters columns. Private letters come from people on my mailing list, many of whom never log onto the Spectator's website.

There can be quite a difference between the two.

For example, my column, "Praise Music Flunks," which criticized pop-oriented church music, elicited a tide of letters from the public, which tended to come in three successive waves: The first wave came from church musicians and church members who felt the same way as I did about praise music and the decline of traditional hymnody. The second wave defended praise music, often eloquently.

The third wave, after an interval, came from people who told me bitterly that I was a bad Christian.

By contrast, my private correspondents had little to say on the subject.

p> LAST WEEK'S COLUMN, " The Making of an Icon ," got a handful of reactions from Spectator readers. And then this came, under the subject heading, "Please stop," from one of my oldest friends: br> /p>

Larry, I don't know what life experiences have caused you to become a right wing purveyor and I'm not sure I really care. I understand that you have embraced devout Christianity and can accept this although it saddens me as any subjugation to authority would. Your political beliefs, however, I find offensive and I certainly do not want to be included in any mailing list. Please stop sending me these obscenities.

Sadly,

br> My friend lives in Europe, is married to a European woman, speaks several European languages, and has put together a successful career as a rock and roll and blues musician and band leader.

Let me give you some background on this remarkable and remarkably talented man. The nephew of distinguished and famous academics, he stood out in an Ivy League college stuffed to the brim with talented people.