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Hiding Vices

“The way I see it

the Bible is so popular
because of its many confusions

in which it is possible
to hide any vice
or combination of vices.”

John Leroy Coffin, Springfield MO, 1997

i met a man once
who told me
that he prayed to God every night

now, i knew better
and he was no Christian
maybe born one, maybe baptized

but i knew he had
notches on his bedpost

and so i asked him
how he could justify
being a Christian
and having sex before marriage

and he said,
“it doesn’t say in the Bible
that you can’t
have sex before marriage”

and so i checked
and the closest thing
i could find
was “thou shalt keep
thy marriage bed pure”

and i wondered
who misconstrued
the words first


Copyright Janet Kuypers.
All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.

Blister and Burn, Janet Kuypers 2007 book