There’s some dispute regarding appearance standards in which a young woman has insisted that her pierced nose is part of her religious beliefs. Long story short–she does not want to remove the piercing on religious grounds because she is a member of the "Church of Body Modification."
The Church of Body Modification espouses an open minded approach to what it calls ancient body modification rites that are essential to spirituality. Funny, that’s what most ancient body modification cultures said to justify ritual human sacrifice. You know, removing the heart, chopping off heads, that sort of thing. Had to do it to appease the gods. Millions ‘modified.’
And aren’t clitorectomies and ancient religious form of body modification? I wonder if they are tolerant of those as well? Stoning women is another winner–not so much spiritual, but a religiously motivated modification none the less.
Listening to twenty or so people give political speeches in succession may well be worse than being water-boarded. Listening to twenty or so political speeches in an air-conditioned room with close to 300 people who (more or less) are on board with just about everything that is likely to be said at that kind of event is choir practice. But having that kind of access to that many candidates for three hours is priceless.