I read a book with pen in hand, my eye peeled for typographical errors. The more expensive the book, the more prestigious the publisher, the greater the joy in finding an error. Most people see me reading with a pen in hand, they think I am underlining important passages. They say, "Look, Mark's a scholar." I read with a pen so I can circle the mistakes other people make. I mark them indelibly in ink. I do this for revenge.

In another church, there was a man who would meet me following the service with the bulletin in hand, or the church newsletter, with the typos and misspelled words circled. His favorite target was mistakes in fact. He would pencil those, and then write the correction in the margin, then hand it to me, without a word, triumphantly.

In fact that person belongs to a trib…