SHOULD WE LET THEM SECEDE THIS TIME?

George Bush's occupation of the White House has been the ultimate revenge of the Confederacy on the United States. Almost everything the vicious, traitorous slave-holding aristocracy in the backward region of the U.S. stood for has been on the ascendancy since Bush's theft of the Florida election in 2000. Contemplating the havoc the illegitimate Bush Regime has been wreaking on this country and on the entire world, I have asked myself many times why we didn't just let the Confederacy go in 1865. What have the Confederate states contributed other than reactionary ideas and politics? Normal Americans have always had to pay higher taxes to support these backward states and this has gotten worse since the Bush Regime seized power. My friend Danny, with good reason, will point out the contributions of cultural giants like Eudora Welty and William Faulkner. My friend Adam would no doubt point out Collective Soul. (Elvis' part of Tennessee stayed loyal to the United States and it's too scary to contemplate the "what if's" when it comes to contributions from a truly great son of the South like Martin Luther King, Jr.) But let's leave all that to someone like Harry Turtledove. I'm bringing this up today because of an actual organization seeking to redraw the map of North America, an organization called Christian Exodus.

In short, Christian Exodus has begun implementing a plan of action to take over the state of South Carolina and turn it into a fundamentalist theocracy (like Iran). I'm going to describe the organization and their plans but if you think I'm making any of this up, please check their website at www.christianexodus.org (where you will immediately be offered an opportunity to purchase bumper stickers, business cards, a shirt and loony right-wing propaganda books by nut cases like Rush's rabidly psychotic brother David Limbaugh, nefarious Ayatollah James Dobson and John Remington Graham's A CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF SECESSION). Their website explains that they are "moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles." The website goes on with a long list of complaints against the United States: "Christians have actively tried to return the United States to their moral foundations for more than 30 years. We now have a professing Christian president, a Republican Congress and a Republican Supreme Court. Yet consider this: Abortion continues against the wishes of many States, Sodomite and lesbian 'marriage' is now legal in Massachusetts (and coming soon to a neighborhood near you),
Children who pray in public schools are subject to prosecution, Our schools continue to teach the discredited theory of Darwinian evolution, The Bible is still not welcome in schools except under unconstitutional FEDERAL guidelines, The 10 Commandments remain banned from public display,
Sodomy is now legal AND celebrated as 'diversity' rather than condemned as perversion, Preaching Christianity will soon be outlawed as 'hate speech,' Fathers are denied equal rights under law in cases of child custody, Our right to keep and bear arms continues to be INFRINGED, Private homes are now subject to arbitrary government seizure." And their solution? They profess offer "the opportunity to try a strategy not yet employed by Bible-believing Christians. Rather than spend resources in continued efforts to redirect the entire nation, we will redeem States one at a time. Millions of Christian conservatives are geographically spread out and diluted at the national level. Therefore, we must concentrate our numbers in a geographical region with a sovereign government we can influence through the electoral process. ChristianExodus.org is orchestrating the move of thousands
of Christians to reacquire our Constitutional rights by electing State and local officials who will interpose on behalf of the people and refuse to enforce illegal federal acts." They then go on carefully describing their treasonous plans to take over one of the country's most backward and reactionary states, South Carolina, and secede from the United States.

Although Christian Exodus claims "God" is its "commander-in-chief," and is a California-based organization, it is actually led by one Cory Burnell, a 29 year old San Diego-born, Texas Nextel dealer who is founder and president. Though he admits he has never been there, he plans to reshape the South Carolina General Assembly to make the state a "Christian domain." And if the federal government does not stop imposing what he considers its liberal will, he wants South Carolina to secede. According to Fox News "Few in the religious right would disagree with Burnell's so-called Christian Exodus beliefs, which include outlawing abortion and homosexual marriage and allowing prayer in school and religious displays in public" and neo-fascist Fox host Sean Hannity has been actively promoting Burnell's crusade. Burnell chose South Carolina because of its coastal location and large evangelical Christian population and because "unlike its neighbor North Carolina — it is no hub of liberalism." One survey says 40% of South Carolinians identify themselves as evangelical Christians. And the South Carolina-based League of the South, a dangerous KKK-like hate group, has already been propagandizing for secession. Once Christian Exodus takes over, he has no plans for pograms or concentration camps and says people who disagree can "relocate" or try to change people's minds so they become the majority. Burnell plans to move 12,000 fanatics into South Carolina in time for the 2008 election. Burnell hasn't moved yet-- but others have. Frank and Tammy Janoski and their 4 children left Bethlehem, PA (bad news for Sanatorum and other extreme right-wingers in places like that) and settled in Upstate South Carolina, in a subdivision between Greer and Simpsonville. Mr. Janoski, is the Christian Exodus state coordinator, and he's helping to organize a national conference at the Greenville Hilton on October 14-16, which will include information booths of local real estate agents, employers and private schools -- all the nuts and bolts needed for relocation (especially the nuts; sorry I couldn't resist).

Like most Americans, Christian Exodus distrusts Bush-- but for an entirely different set of reasons; they believe he is soft on abortion and homosexuality. One of the local fake preachers, the so-called "Rev" Tony Romo, pastor of South Point Baptist Church in Pelzer, and Christan Exodus' "contact person" for Upstate, said his church will hold a "leadership meeting" for Christian Exodus on Oct. 16. "Some people think it's some kind of whacked-out religious invasion. It's not that at all," he said. (Do you feel as reassured as I do?)
"These folks who are moving in, they're not really coming here to take over. They're coming to augment what's here." Aside from the snake-handlers and holy-rollers, Bob Jones "University" and the KKK and it's offshoots are also predictably gung-ho. Robert B. Hayes, state director of the South Carolina League of the South, another hate roup that supports Southern secession, said he is in contact with Burnell on a regular basis, and the two groups share many of the same goals and members. "We're definitely supportive of them," Hayes said.

The group's carefully laid out operation plans to break down the wall between church and state start with Phase One-- to enlist groups of 1,000 members to move into 12 designated House districts in South Carolina, with the goal of voting 12 "Christian sovereigntists" into the state government by 2008. Subsequent similar phases will then go into effect. If by 2016 group leaders have not achieved the kind of government they want, Christian Exodus will throw down the gauntlet and seek independence. The problem, of course, is that eventually, like all religionist whack-jobs, they plan to take over the world. Burnell explained to Fox "News" that although they don't want to live near any sodomites, they don't want to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. "We have to look at the great mission posed to us by Jesus Christ: 'Go as a disciple to nations,' he said. "We want to go into the rest of the world."

That's the one drawback to giving the religionist nuts their own country. They're never happy-- be they Christian fanatics, Muslim fanatics, Hindu fanatics or Jewish fanatics-- until they've imposed their deranged views, usually born of mental deficiency and a perverse interpretation of Mother Goose and Buy Bull stories-- on the rest of mankind. So although I am greatly tempted to cheer them on with their take-over of South Carolina (I mean GOOD riddance! Take Mississippi and Alabama too!), I think it would be even better to send all these religionist loons to an island (along with religionist fanatics of all other stripes) with no boats or planes and let them fight it out amongst eachother and leave the rest of us alone.