Want to show "An Inconvenient Truth" in school? Bring your Bible

At the rate things are going, former Vice-President Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth will surpass J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter septology as the most challenged movie and book in America's schools.

Case in point: In the Seattle, Washington suburb of Federal Way, an evangelical parent challenged the movie, saying that it had to be "balanced" with the Bible -- or the movie had to be shown by a teacher who expressed the "opposing" view. From the words of the parent in question: "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD." Well of course it's not in the DVD because it's not in the Bible.

It's outright heresy, and as Gore himself said over a decade ago, an "appallingly self-fulfilling prophecy of doom." God never said he'd burn up the earth, but that plagues the world had never seen before would stymie the earth immediately before the arrival of the anti-Christ. Moreover, Jesus himself said in the Olivet Discourse that his return would be as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West -- in other words, the cosmic disturbance to end all of them. Nothing about fire there.

God promised to Noah he'd never destroy the Earth. Quite frankly, we're doing that ourselves -- and we're reaping the consequences: Depleted soil, uncontrolled forest fires, contaminated water, and of course massive hurricanes and tornadoes at the most inconvenient time of the year (like, say, November in urban Hamilton, where trailer parks are banned).

Truly said is that the White House and 24 Sussex are each inhabited by individuals who -- although they're entitled to believe what they believe -- have a warped view of what the Bible actually says. It's our job to have dominion over the earth, not to have domination.

I saw Gore's movie last year. While it's presented with an entirely secular viewpoint, it's also rooted in Gore's strong evangelical Christian faith. Of course, many if not most evangelicals have a hard time believing a Democrat could even be a Christian. If these critics want balance, they should do it from a secular standpoint -- and I'm not talking about "intelligent design" either because even an intelligent designer would not set up the Earth to self-destruct.

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