The engraving on the side of one of the pencils in our pen and pencil drawer reads, "LDS Scripture Marker." I can imagine a Mormon riding the bus with his scriptures open on his lap, and being politely asked by the Baptist in the seat across the aisle to lend that pencil for a moment so the Baptist can highlight a passage in his own scriptures. The Mormon kindly obliges, only to see the Baptist shake his head in befuddlement.

"It's not working," says the Baptist.

"Oh, I should have remembered," says the Mormon. "Here, let me trade you." And he reaches into his travel bag and pulls out a second pencil, identical to the first except for the absence of the word "LDS" in the engraving. The Baptist tries this one, and it does the job just fine. The time comes for the Baptist to disembark. He asks if he might keep the pencil. The Mormon, eager to do his part to build interfaith goodwill, happily assents.

Several minutes later, the Baptist is walking down the street when a stranger approaches him and asks if he can spare a pen or pencil. Happy to do his Christian duty, the Baptist cheerily departs with the writing utensil he so recently acquired. I leave it to the reader to guess what happens when this individual attempts to use the pencil to write down a woman's phone number in a bar later.

Of course, this scenario would be completely impossible in the real world. A devout Baptist would never speak civilly to a Mormon.