I am not a Biblical scholar, but I do know my Bible very well. Accounts of Christ's teachings never touched on piercing, or for that matter specific sexual acts or gender preferences. He simply did not find mere lifestyle issues to be of spiritual significance, in and of themselves. What is given great significance throughout the New Testament is how we relate to our Creator and each other.

Let me back up these statements with some references to scripture. Wasn't it Jesus who, for his first miracle, turned water into wine, and terrific wine at that. Wasn't it Jesus who dined with tax collectors and other socalled sinners, and who hung out with women as well (not a common practice in those days). Wasn't one of his best friends, Mary Magdalene, a sex worker? It seems that Jesus was the one who saved a woman who had committed adultery from being stoned, and that he raised the ire of the local religious types (don't we still have them today?) when he cured the lame on the Sabbath ("The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath - Mark 2:27; see also Matthew 12).

You pointed out in you editorial that Leviticus procribed piercing. Some object to piercing by referring to Leviticus. Funny, these same people do not seem to observe the kosher laws, or keep the many other rules laid out in the Old Testament (how many Jews observe them either?) These rules may have made sense considering the events and the living conditions of the time, especially the rules about diet and hygiene.

Jesus did give a commandment. "This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one that this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you." John 15: 12-14.

Jesus warned against judging others (Matthew 7:1), and used himself as an illustration of how hypocrites will find any handy reason to condemn. "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He was a demon!' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindictaed by her deeds."

Seems that deeds, rather than lifestyle, were important to Jesus.

I could go on. There is a whole body of scripture dealing with the idea of Chistian liberty, i.e. that Christ freed us from the burden of arbitrary rules, that love is the key to spiritual life.

What in itself is evil? I enjoy my morning coffee. But if I make it more important to dring it in peace than to listen to my child who wishes to speak to me, then there is a problem with how I relate to coffee. I know a person who put it this way, about fishing. "I like fishing a whole lot, but I love my wife and kids." The same applies to piecing.

Thanks again for your editorial. And please let it be known that not all Christians hate the body and its pleasures. I take some of my inspiration in this regard from the Song of Solomon. A wonderful about romantic and very sexual love. Funny, some of the fundementalists think that this is the only book of the Bible that is metaphorical, rather than literal.