Sponges for Jesus

It is indeed a sad day for the education system in our country when a school board is persuaded out of screening a scientifically-based and supported, yet eminently accessible, movie about global warming (yes, that would be Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth") by the religiously-motivated protestations of a parent, who evidently believes that the warming of the earth is a sign that Jesus is getting ready to return.  (One wonders if this man is burning plastics containing CFCs in his back yard to hasten the lord's return?)  The movie is devoid of violence, sex, nudity, or explicit language (unless "ice floe" became a naughty word that I didn't know about).  The only thing about the movie that could be somewhat objectionable, from an educational standpoint, is that the science presented in the movie could be debated (though virtually every major scientific body has supported the film's science, but perhaps you could find some scientist from remote New Guinea who might have another theory).  But alas, I thought that was the point of education - to teach children how to access and consider a proposition, whether scientific or otherwise, and then to arrive at their own conclusion.  Does Hester Prynne deserve the scarlet "A?"  Does the theory of relativity make sense?  Do humans hasten the warming of the earth's atmosphere?  By bending to one parent's religious principles, the school board is doing a disservice to all of its students, which are its primary responsibility, because it is failing to teach its students the most basic educational lesson - to reason and think for themselves.  If Mr. High and Mighty Religious Parent actually had a defensible position, then he would be able to sit his daughter down after she came home from watching "An Inconvenient Truth" and explain to her why it was wrong and why the melting of Antarctica is a harbinger of Judgment Day.  And then she would get to decide for herself which theory made the most sense to her.  Faith is not the business of the public school system, nor should it ever become the business of a school to fail to teach a child to think for herself because of the religious ideas of her parents.  If her parents really want her to become a sponge for Jesus, there's always a private school happy to serve that need.