This email I received today refers to my other web site, www.shunn.net, but it's exactly the sort of this I need to get used to hearing, particularly once the book comes out:

Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 09:56:31 -0600
From: STDGAJ11@shsu.edu
To: bill@shunn.net
Subject: Seek Professional Help

i honestly think you are very sick in the head and should seek help. how can you serve a mission, know that the church is still true, and then fall (or as you say, "walk") away from it? if it was so bad and evil, then you never would have served a mission in the first place. and how can you mock the temple? and you know for a fact that Joseph Smith didn't write the book of Mormon. i mean, do you honestly have nothing better to do with your life than to make up false doctrine about the church? there's got to be better things to do than this? esp. when what you say is ALL lies. what's really sad is you know it's true and you did have a testimony...but now you find fun in doing this...now that is sad....really sad. i feel bad for you...i really do. i just recently got married to a convert (who i baptized two years ago) and we had the most beautiful temple marriage. and we are more than happy and love the church. you have issues and like i said....i feel bad for you. if you are that bored in life...why don't you do something productive? something that will better the world. we already have enough sick people....do something respectful and worth your time.....basically what i am trying to say is get a life and respect what you know to be true.....

If I'm doing a reading or something and one of these rabid Mormons confronts me, I won't have time to take a walk and clear my head. I need to be able to respond calmly and clearly right then and there.

I mean, I get a lot of emails like this, but I've never really had to respond to a diatribe like this in person. Maybe I should hire a debate coach. Or a sparring partner, one or the other.