From “The Scratching Post”: Owning our sins

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, April 26, 2016]. Republished here by permission of the author.]

I want to introduce a new word – or repurpose an old one; I’m not sure which. The word is “bibliopath,” a person whose thinking is disordered by blind reverence for a book or a particular interpretation of that book. In most cases, the book is a sacred text, like the Holy Bible or the Quran.
    In America, most bibliopaths live in Red States, with a heavy concentration in the South. They think of homosexuality as an abomination; that’s the biblical label for it. I don’t think the Bible has a classification for changing one’s gender, but doing so repudiates what God has made, so I guess it’s an abomination, too. Gays who marry defile both themselves and a holy institution. They double down on sin.

From “The Scratching Post”: American pride

By Ken Marks

[Originally posted on The Scratching Post, March 25, 2018. Republished here by permission of the author.]

Have you ever watched “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” You can get an education, and not just from the questions and answers. For example, it recently aired a week of shows with the theme “American Pride.” All the contestants did a service for their communities: charity work, nursing, firefighting, teaching, and the like. Certainly, we should be grateful for the good they do, sometimes at the sacrifice of a livable income. But it’s hard for me to see gratitude as pride, and I certainly see nothing “American” about what I feel or what they do.