Here's an angle on the milieu, here in the Empire HQ
But I believe this wonderfully concise description addresses much more than just the nature of some of his mail - it goes to the psychological zeigeist, some reasons for our LOUD/screaming radio 'talk shows'; the basis for the popularity of such demagogues as Hannity and O'Reilly, to name just two:
Dear Mr. LaSalle: Have you ever considered publishing a book containing the most off-the-wall, rabidly angry and downright weird mail you undoubtedly receive?Your example, Leviticus - was in fact 'played out' on one of the early versions of the rather popular (in one polarity) TV What-If? presidential soap opera, The West Wing.
Scott Pearson, Oakland
Dear Mr. Pearson: No, and you wouldn't want to read it, either. The sort of letters I sometimes print here represent the sane tip of a pretty disturbed iceberg, and it's that way for anyone in media. Much of the public, it seems, has replaced religious faith or spiritual practice with idolatry, either of a sick popular culture or sick politicians. The result is a lot of people who are both rabid and miserable, attached to things that give them no inner sustenance and yet deeply protective of those things. At least that's my theory. You might expect that such a mind-set might at least produce interesting mail, but the sameness and sadness of it all are only disheartening.
This was, IIRC in its first year. A Fright-wing lady / demagogue was with some others meeting the President. There was an Interesting exchange of the sort of example-selecting you decribe;
Ex: ~~
Pres: (confronting Ms. Authority Figure, a 'Doctor' in her title. Doctor of English Lit, it turns out.):
So then, must I kill my Chief of Staff personally, or may I delegate the task - he often works on The Sabbath. And about my daughter, should she choose [something, forgotten] - would I have to stone her myself?
My neighbor, who plants more than one crop in adjacent fields: how shoud he be killed?
The hypocrisy combined with Certainty, inconsistency complicated by the perpetually feuding splinter sects: guarantees that you can never know what One 'Christian' thinks/believes/Believes! = OrElseYouDieHorribly&Repeatedly, sucker -- but currently it matters little: nobody is listening except to their own comfort-oracle. Shout-radio is the proof of the pervasiveness of mental deterioration.
ie.
Non-Communication is our Largest industry in '05..
(And the major means of Neoconman persistence in power)
Can't you infer most of that just by watching Our President 'talk'?