School: Church of Body Modification Isn't a Real Religion, disciplines girl with nose piercing

Why is it that pierced ears are acceptable but a pierced nose gets you thrown out of school? Why is it OK for a 14-year-old Catholic girl to come to school with a streak of ashes on her forehead on Ash Wednesday, but if that same girl shows up with a tattoo the proverbial smelly stuff hits the fan?

And what if that girl happens to be a member of the Church of Body Modification (WARNING: Graphic images!), and the ACLU gets involved?

Well, it has churned up a big pile of religious mud that Christians would rather leave undisturbed. It shows just how much special treatment religions get in this country. We're OK when Christians get their holidays and rituals, but when some unconventional ("weirdo") religion come along with oddball beliefs and tries to claim the same privileges, everyone cries foul. The mainstream religions don't like it one bit.

"The purpose of my nose ring is, it makes me kind of feel whole," said Arianna Iacono, the girl at the center of the fuss. [Note: news articles spell her name "Ariana" and "Arianna."] The Church of Body Modification "represents a collection of members practicing ancient and modern body modification rites." And these aren't like the sailor tattoos on Uncle Joe's forearm. Their web site makes it clear they endorse some pretty strong stuff, including suspension, where people stick huge hooks into themselves and are hoisted into the air by their own skin.

But the principal of Arianna's school was having none of it.

Mississippi Once Again Embarrasses Itself

Leave it to America's rural South to be both the home of leading liberal Democrats, as well as the last bastion of embarrassing religious bigotry. Are these bigots living in the dark ages? Don't they know about the Internet, TV, and that it's not 1955 any more?

Itawamba County in northern Mississippi is one of those places nobody has heard of. It has just over 20,000 residents total, and only three towns (the largest has 3,000 residents). Itawamba had only two claims to fame: Tammy Wynette, the wonderful country singer/songwriter, was born there, as was Delphia Spencer Hankin. What, you never heard of Mrs. Hankin? Why, she lived to be over 110 years old!

But this week Itawamba County got a new claim to fame when religious anti-gay intolerance and bigotry catapulted high-school student Constance McMillen into the national news. She wanted nothing more than to attend the high-school prom with her sweetheart like the rest of the students. The trouble is, her sweetheart is her girlfriend, and Constance wanted to wear a tuxedo.

Ten Commandments in Oklahoma: A Disappointing Victory

(Update: The original headline said "Texas" but it's Oklahoma.)

Yesterday the Supreme Court declined to hear the case from Stigler, Oklahoma, in which the Federal Court ordered a monument with the Ten Commandments removed from the courthouse lawn. While it is a victory that maintains our constitutional rights to a religion-free government, it's too bad that the Supreme Court didn't answer this case once and for all.

A number of other states actually urged the Court to take the case on – not because they had a specific pro/con agenda, but rather because they wanted a clear answer. These cases keep popping up, over and over. Some local Christian minister or ladies group or men's fraternal order will get the notion that everything that's wrong in the world is due to the fact that we don't have God and Jesus in our courtrooms, and they stick a Ten-Commandments monument on some government lawn, and then the state is faced with a big, expensive legal battle.