Almost anywhere else, a ceremonial kiss is part of every high-school queen's inaugural. But not in Bethany, Okla. Most of its 2,600 citizens are Nazarenes, members of a strict sect close to the fundamentalist Methodists, who consider public kissing sinful, along with beer halls, smoking, and women in shorts. Last week, when 16-year-old Basketball King Riddell Riggs defiantly kissed 16-year-old Queen Charlotte McClain before an applauding crowd of students, the incident touched off a near civil war.
Next day, 16 pupils quit the high school, fearing that even stricter rules were sure to follow. Six of the rebels were promptly expelled....