How To Get In Touch
There are three ways to get in touch with Jonathan or ask him questions:
1. You can try to find him wandering the streets of Princeton. This might not be very time-efficient, though.
2. You can send him an email via the Ask Jonathan field above. I suggest this method for any messages that include ways to get back to you that you don’t necessarily want publicized on the internet, longer questions or comments, or anything that you’d otherwise send as a letter, email, or Facebook message.
3. You can ask him a question via Formspring. Formspring is good for short questions that are okay to be answered publicly (i.e. anything you’d expect Jonathan respond to in a published interview).
Is He Going to Reply?
All the questions submitted will be read, and Jonathan is very glad to receive comments and questions.
However, how much attention they receive depends on how much the question makes Jonathan want to respond (and how urgent they are).
A good rule of thumb is the on-the-street rule.
If you would want to be approached by someone you don’t know while you’re walking on the street or while you’re sitting in a café and be told whatever you’re about to say by email or Formspring, then there’s a good chance it’s the sort of comment that fits this venue: polite, complimentary, interesting, relevant, stimulating, and calmly and thoughtfully stated.
If it’s the sort of thing you’d be rather bothered to hear from a stranger while you’re walking on the street or sitting in a café, or that would get you arrested on said street or ejected from said café, chances are your comment will be glanced at with the same face you would have given that unruly person and then just as much ignored and just as quickly forgotten.
Send the first kind.
Also, obviously, nobody wants to be approached one the street by people who are selling something; trying to sell something via this blog will lead to your I.P address being blocked. (Yes, your I.P. address registers when you access this blog.)
If the question is regarding something with a deadline, it would be best if you include the deadline.
If the question is regarding something you would like a direct response to, getting a response is only possible if you include a working email address.
That being said, please don’t take it personally if Jonathan doesn’t respond to your question at all. Jonathan does get a good number of inquiries, and he doesn’t have the time to address all of them — often not even the ones he really wants to reply to. Your question may also already have been addressed. The “Search” function helps you find a lot of the information you may be looking for.
Finally, please accept that, as a member of a number of faith, academic, and civic communities, there are some things that Jonathan won’t address publicly for any number of reasons.
