I just got home from a Cobb County school board meeting. Following their recent loss in the courts, the school board met in a special double-secret session to decide how to handle their self-imposed crisis. They met for three hours behind closed doors to determine how they would vote and what message they would communicate to the public.

We in the peanut gallery wondered what they were doing for so long. When they finally emerged from their little comfort zone, the school board gave us a very good idea.

Contrary to Rusty’s dire warnings, the Un-Christian Coalition did not show up in force. They knew what was going to happen, so they didn’t need to practice their show of violence on this day meant to celebrate the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. The school board took no public comments because they knew that this time, the public would be making comments. Some among us tried to comment, but were shushed by the insecure little bastards on the board.

It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. –Abraham Joshua Heschel

Tonight, the Cobb County School Board, in their vain and selfish grasp for publicity, once again chose to make both education and Jesus Christ irrelevant in the hearts and minds of thousands of public school students. They decided, behind closed doors, to appeal the ruling. As it turned out, they took those three hours to write a misleading press release, which was full of blasphemous lies. They assert that our school system exceeds national standards, but all they know is how to pass tests and write press releases behind closed doors. They do not know how to educate, but as politicians they would rather meddle in the business of educators.

By struggling in vain to proselytize on behalf of their particular irreligious doctrines, the members of the school board are pushing an agenda that will only backfire. Their intention — let’s be honest here — is to push religion. That much is transparent. However, by pushing religion in the public schools, these school board members will only see a result that is the opposite of the intended effect: these children, pushed to accept a patently false statement, will only be pushed away from their religious upbringing.

What the school board did tonight was wrong and illegal. They should be fired.