A newly-formed group of Christian activists has begun plans to encourage up to 12,000 like-minded individuals to move to South Carolina. Their hope is to eventually withdraw that state from the United States and "reestablish the sovereign Christian nation of South Carolina."

The Tyler, Texas-based Christian Exodus has launched a Web site, ChristianExodus.com, and has begun encouraging visitors to sign up to participate in what the Web site says is "an association of Christians who no longer wish to live under the unjust usurpation of powers by the federal government."

According to the organization's Web site:

Christians have actively tried to return the United States to their moral foundations for more than 20 years. We now have a 'Christian' president, a 'Christian' attorney general, and a Republican Congress and Supreme Court. Yet consider this:

Abortion continues against the wishes of many states
Children may not pray in our schools
The Bible is not welcome in schools except under strict federal guidelines
The 10 Commandments remain banned from public display
Sodomy is now legal and celebrated as 'diversity' rather than perversion
Preaching Christianity will soon be outlawed as 'hate speech'
Gay marriage will be foisted upon us in the very near future"

The group's solution is to convince at least 12,000 people to move to South Carolina, where it is hoped their numbers will be sufficient to influence state and local politics with the "express purpose of reestablishing a Godly, constitutional government." Ultimately, the group hopes to convince voters to somehow withdraw the state from the United States and form an independent, Christian-oriented country.

Part of the group's inspiration seems to be the "Free State" movement. That group, formed in 2001, seeks to convince 20,000 "liberty-minded" people to move to New Hampshire. The Free State organization isn't planning to split the state away from the U.S. Instead, they hope to encourage New Hampshire residents to embrace their "libertarian tendencies."

Christian Exodus takes that idea one step further with the succession idea, and with its focus on Biblical issues.

Leaders from Christian Exodus failed to respond to numerous requests for interviews, but Cory Burnell, president of the non-profit group, recently told the conservative publication WorldNetDaily that a primary motivating factor for the group was the recent court decision in Massachusetts that opened up the way for gay marriages.

"Our Christian republic has declined into a pagan democracy," said Burnell. "There are some issues people just can't take anymore, and [same-sex marriage] might finally wake up the complacent Christians."

Although the leadership of Christian Exodus is keeping a low profile for now, potential members are lighting up the group's Web site message board. And as might be expected, opinions on the future of the group and their influence on South Carolina span a wide range of expectations. Particularly when it comes to discussing those who may not agree with their philosophy.

"Well on one hand I kinda favor a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. But should homosexuals speak up, they should be deported, sanctioned, or held in jail," said one person, discussing whether their new "country" should endorse or permit lifestyles they believe go against biblical teachings.

Other visitors had ideas on what laws might be applicable in their new South Carolina home.

"No alcohol sold on Sundays at all. All entries into the town would be policed with random checks for alcohol abuse, breathalyzers mandatory. No places of business open on Sundays. All schools, public, private or otherwise would teach creation, have the Ten commandments placed and say prayer before classes start. No landlords allowed to rent to couples just living together ... Abortion would not be legal in any circumstance," one poster said.

Other visitors held an opposing view, and contemplated a state in which a wide range of beliefs would be encouraged to flourish.

While these opinions are by no means representative of the organization as a whole, they do point to the difficulties faced by any group hoping to convince 12,000 people to move to a new state. Much less a movement comprised of people with wildly different opinions on what is and what is not acceptable behavior.

If Christian Exodus is successful in its attempt to convince a number of people to migrate, the organization would still face the challenge that seceding from the United States is most likely a constitutional impossibility. "This idea is a great publicity stunt and it sounds like a very dramatic action," said historian and political consultant Ned Barnett. "But I'm a fairly strict interpreter of the Constitution and I can tell you there is no legal basis for any state withdrawing from the U.S. That issue was settled, once and for all, by the American Civil War."

"Beyond that, the so-called 'Separation Clause' of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would prohibit any state government from addressing a purely religious issue," said Barnett. "They couldn't acknowledge the efforts to secede -- even if that were legal, which it is not -- on the basis of religion. It's kind of a catch-22. There's really no way around it, and it would keep a state in the U.S. even if that state could otherwise secede."

Barnett did say that in some ways, groups such as Christian Exodus are serving the purest interpretation of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers. "The original intent of the writers of the Constitution was that each state would have a fair amount of flexibility to interpret laws as they saw fit," said Barnett. "They intended for different states to have different interpretations of the Constitution and of the type of government they wanted to have." So encouraging like-minded individuals to move to one area to gain control of the local political scene would be "precisely what the founders intended. But the secession idea is another thing entirely."

As it turns out, the Christian Exodus movement is not the first time Cory Burnell has attempted to persuade people to move to South Carolina. During his tenure as N.E. Texas Regional Chairman of the League of the South, Burnell wrote several articles advocating a "Southern Independence" movement. In one article, Burnell said that "Our immediate goal must be to free one targeted state from the union" by the year 2014.

It's not at all clear whether or not Burnell and Christian Exodus will be successful in their attempts to convince 12,000 people to migrate to South Carolina. And even if they are successful, it's too early to know what impact they will have on that state's political structure.

But as Ned Barnett noted, these efforts are usually driven not by the need to make real political change, but to make a statement about the current state of society and its perceived failings. "Politically, it's all a sham ... because these groups are minorities even within the fundamentalist Christian movement. Most fundamentalists are also profoundly patriotic, and would not want to leave the U.S. under any circumstances."