Can't put your lipstick on a memory

Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics and personal heroine of Sister Nancy Beth. I've found her credo "faith first, family second, career third" words to live by, and as a consequence, I am routinely punished for it. Like today, for instance. I tried to explain the solemnity of the occasion to Conchita this morning, but she told me that I couldn't take religious holidays at my leisure and to get my ass in here pronto or I'd be mourning the loss of my job, too. I'm wearing all pink as a sign of Our Country's loss, but a velour track suit doesn't quite impart the same sense of grief as a black lace mantilla would have -- I look a little bit like an extra from a Richard Simmons exercise video. I'm letting out occasional sobs here at the reception desk, but for the most part, no one seems particularly concerned.

Today's run-in with Conchita makes me think that even Red China grants its Christians more religious freedom than present-day America. It's a good thing I'm in mourning, because something like this could really piss me off:

...North Carolina Republican Representative Walter Jones is working to correct what he sees as religious persecution happening in the U.S. armed forces on a daily basis. "The persecution centers on Christian chaplains praying in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ," he asserts. "That's the First Amendment right of everyone." Jones and a number of pro-family organizations have jointly asked President George W. Bush to protect the constitutional rights of American military chaplains by issuing an executive order allowing them to pray freely according to their beliefs.

This is what the U.S. military is doing to its priests. Just imagine how rough a receptionist at your local unisex beauty palace has it.

Fortunately I'm not the only one noticing the wholesale warfare against Christianity going on in the beauty parlors of America. It appears a majority of Americans are wising up as well. Stories like this make me think that brighter days and more radiant highlights for us Christians are just around the corner.