I began this section of my on-line journal nearly a week after I put up the "general" section, and at the outset decided to keep my spiritual statements separate so as not to discourage readers who might be put off by explorations of a more or less traditional Christian faith. (Although why "I am a follower of Jesus" should be more inflammatory or off-putting than "I hate high school wrestling" or "James Spader is a wonderful and underrated actor" is not easy to define.)

One reader said she found "much" that was "offensive" in my "strong statements" about Christianity, a reaction which baffled me because I think my pieces are entirely self-referential without a whiff of proselytizing. There are some people, I guess, who just hear "Christian" and immediately think "intolerant, obnoxious, moral absolutist." A short piece in yesterday's local paper might explain why.

It seems that the school board in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania (a small town north of Pittsburgh) has decided not to allow a group of senior high students to attend a local university's presentation on Buddhism by a group of Tibetan monks. Board members have also decided not to allow the monks to visit an elementary school for a presentation to younger students.

In explaining the decision, board members called the monks "pagans" and said their presentation was "just another multi-cultural one-world crock." (I am quoting directly from the newspaper here -- as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.) The mother of a third-grader said that the children of Slippery Rock "don't need to learn about a bunch of nomads who don't have a country. Who cares about Tibet? I think we need to worry about teaching kids about Christ instead of learning about other religions that aren't significant."

The board is basing its decision on "laws that prevent schools from promoting religion in public school classrooms." "Why should they be allowed?" asked a board member. "Any Christian establishment wouldn't get their foot in the door."

This particular school board is either willfully ignorant or desperately needs to engage new legal counsel. The school laws of Pennsylvania prohibit only forced sectarian worship experiences. On the other hand, those laws mandate education about world cultures, including the religions practiced in those cultures.

Ironically, I read the Slippery Rock story while my daughter and her best friend slept upstairs. They'd spent Saturday attending the Bat Mitzvah of a classmate, both the religious ceremony in the morning and the dinner party in the evening. (The kids are all turning 13 this year -- it was their eighth Bar or Bat Mitzvah since September.) I woke the girls up in time to get them to our own church for Sunday School.

My daughter and her friend are in their first year of preparation for confirmation in the Lutheran tradition. There's a lot of doctrine and history this year. Next year they'll get apologetics plus visits to the local Baha'i temple, Islamic mosque, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic cathedrals, and Jewish synagogue. They'll learn how our path to God compares with others', how we differ, how we mesh.

What I want to ask the misinformed school board members and parents of Slippery Rock is, What are you afraid of? Is information about world religions so dangerous that you have to hide it from your children? Is the foundation you've built for them in your own tradition so weak it can't stand beside another? Is your God that small?