Christian Exodus has 10-year goal for state power

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Christian Exodus has 10-year goal for state power

Fewer than 100 people attend group's conference Saturday in Greenville

By Dan Hoover, Greenville Online, Greenville News, October 16, 2005

Part strategy session, part pep rally and part coming-out party, Christian Exodus met in the Upstate this weekend with more enthusiasm than numbers.

One speaker suggested gunfire if government officials seek to confiscate personal firearms. Another said public education has taught generations of schoolchildren to hate America, and founder Cory Burnell said property ownership would be required for the "privilege" of voting.

Burnell said that with national power, Christian Exodus would seek to determine whether the 14th, 16th and 17th amendments to the U.S. Constitution were "ratified properly, and if not, put them up for proper ratification."

Those amendments respectively guaranteed citizenship, the vote and civil rights for freed slaves; instituted the income tax; and began popular election of the U.S. Senate. Ninety-four people registered for the convention, but only about 50 adults sat in on various meetings at any one time at the suburban hotel, organizers said.

The 2-year-old group seeks to convince enough like-minded people to move to South Carolina so it can take political power and transform government to reflect Christian values.

Burnell's wife, Nicole, who handles Christian Exodus' membership outreach, said she was "encouraged" at the turnout, emigration numbers and national membership rolls.

Burnell told reporters Saturday that six families, comprising 14 adults and 20 children have relocated to Christian Exodus' two target counties. He declined to identify the counties beyond describing one as small, the other large. Nationwide, he said, membership has just topped 1,000.

But, he said initial estimates of 500 for the small county and 2,000 for the larger one may have been oversold. Fewer may be needed because of higher-than-expected support locally among like-minded Christians, he said.

Its first candidates will probably run next year with a 10-year goal of seizing the Legislature, Burnell said. Once in place, Christian Exodus will focus on county and city councils, sheriff's races, and school boards, he said.

"In 2008, we'd like to complete our first phase and what we'd consider a success there is a majority on the county councils and county sheriff," Burnell said. "City council would be a bonus. School boards would be a bonus. If we felt we had enough support, we'd move on to another phase where we'd select another county."

Burnell, 29, founded the organization in 2003 amid disillusionment over a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down Texas' antisodomy law and a federal judge's order that then-Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore remove a Ten Commandments monument from the court building.

Strong rhetoric

Speakers covered a range of topics.

Michael Chapman, a leader of a Minnesota grass-roots education watchdog group, urged members to "fight federal dictatorship of education." He said a humanist curriculum has created an educational system "at odds with our Christian heritage and the teachings on which the U.S. was founded."

His hour-plus remarks triggered a barrage of "amens" and "yes sirs."

There wasn't total unanimity.

Upstate radio talk show host John Cobin's comments on gun control and Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George W. Bush didn't win agreement from some participants.

"We like guns -- they're part of our checks and balances against the evils and intrusions of an interventionist state. That's right to shoot them when they come down your street in South Carolina. I hope you'll have the courage to die for liberty," he said.

"They're going to come up with a SWAT team and ask for your weapons, and you should pull it out immediately, take aim, and fire," Cobin said.

"We don't approve of George Bush and his Patriot Act and his phony-baloney nonsense he's inflicting the world with," including an "insane and aggressive war" in Iraq."

Lincoln, Cobin said, "didn't free a single slave. He was a maniacal, shifty politician who's responsible for the (Civil War) deaths of 600,000 people."

Disagreement

But Charles Lewis of Simpsonville, a Christian Exodus member recently moved from Washington, D.C., said, "A bunch of us were appalled. I don't want to be represented by that. It's not Christian. I don't think the U.S. is the aggressor in (the Middle East), I don't choose to attack a president that's been dead for 140 years, and we're certainly not thinking about shooting government agents that come to our door."

Chris Gill, 41, of Greenville, who came to the meeting to learn more about the organization, didn't like hearing Cobin "bash Bush because Bush is a born-again Christian. Nobody's perfect."

But, he said, Christian Exodus is on the right track because "America has drifted from its Christian roots, and organizations like this have got to stand up for our Christian heritage and lead the way."

William Quattlebaum, 51, a member from Evans, Ga., said his dissatisfaction "with the federal government dictating to the states" brought him to Christian Exodus. Abortion, gun control and, now, new eminent domain powers for government are issues he wants the group to address, he said.

Bob Hervieux of Simpsonville, who moved from Massachusetts last month, said the group's focus on the rights of states and "their desire to glorify God in all that they're doing, within government" attracted him. "We've got church, we've got family, we've got government, so government shouldn't be excluded. They want to tie those things together."

Memorabilia

Outside the meeting room, vendors offered an assortment of goods and services from T-shirts to bumper stickers to financial counseling. One table was covered with real estate and apartment guides.

Many of the items had Confederate themes or religious overtones. Sometimes both. A T-shirt proclaimed, "Proud Southern Christian" above a Christian symbol of a fish encompassing a Confederate battle flag.

Some speakers suggested they're not friends of the Republican Party, although the organization has indicated a willingness to use its label to win office.

In the hotel parking lot, a battered maroon van was adorned with bumper stickers and hand-lettered signs, one reading, "George W. Bush is not pro-life."

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