Responses from Readers

 

My denomination publishes a quarterly devotional magazine called Portals of Prayer. In every issue, three individuals each write a month’s worth of daily devotions.

Mine appeared in February.

I received a number of comments on the devotions. Only one was negative, but that one and one of the positive ones were unexpected.

Portals of Prayer includes a brief biography of each writer that includes the individual’s church but no other contact information. Although it also didn’t include my website, that is easy enough to find with an internet search and I received several comments through its contact page. That’s how I received the sole negative comment.

I had done several devotions on God’s command to obey governing authorities. I followed them up with one on obeying God rather than the governing authority when the governing authority asks us to do something contrary to God’s Law (Acts 5:29), and I used Hitler as an example.

Here is a quote from the email I received in response to that devotion.

You had to bring up Hitler, what an easy way to be brave! Sorry Miss, but you are either a coward, and/or a lazy researcher or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Hitler actually was a devout Catholic, and during his era, thousands of new churches were actually built, and none were taken down.

I haven’t researched whether new churches were built during Hitler’s era, and that statement may be true. Hitler may also have claimed to be a devout Catholic, but his actions prove otherwise.

The email went on to say that the real villainy (my word, not his) occurred in the Soviet Union, where, according to the writer, Jews were behind Bolshevism and created it specifically to murder as many Christians as possible. Finally, the writer denied the existence of the Holocaust and ended by saying, “As Christians, we are not allowed to lie about other people or countries, simply because everyone believes it to be factual.”

In many ways, that was an easy comment to respond to. Although I consider research to be one of my strengths and calling me a lazy researcher would normally have upset me, the entire email made it clear that the writer was misguided. Arguing would accomplish nothing since the unknown author of the email is as unlikely to change his or her mind as I am to change mine. So I simply said, “Thank you for sharing your opinion with me,” and left it at that.

One of the positive responses to the devotions was harder to handle.

Several people contacted me through my church, and one note complimenting the devotions included a check for $125.

It wouldn’t be quite true to say I didn’t do it for the money. I consider myself a professional writer who is worthy of my hire, and I gladly accepted the stipend that Portals of Prayer paid me for my work. Still, my primary goal is to write to the glory of God, not for worldly reward. While I appreciate all the positive comments, I don’t feel right accepting money from a reader. So I voided the check and returned it with some suggestions for where they could donate the money if they so chose.

Writers never know what type of responses they will get from readers. Many times readers’ opinions are unexpressed, and the writer doesn’t know what they are. I can live with that.

But it’s always nice to hear from readers.

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The picture at the beginning of the post was painted in 1896 by Arthur Netherwood and is titled “Portrait of an Old Woman Reading the Bible by Candlelight.” It is in the public domain because of its age.