This is pretty funny. Via Digby, here’s a web site attempting to organize “Christian constitutionalists” (there’s a constitution in the Bible?) in moving to South Carolina “for the express purpose of re-establishing Godly, constitutional government.”
Simply put, things are becoming too dreadful in America for the exiting Christians. What with abortion, gay marriage, ten commandments monuments being stripped from our courthouses, and other “abominations,” such as the U.S. Supreme Court upholding McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform (apparently the Bible also prohibits regulating political campaign contributions). So it’s off to South Carolina to rebuild America as God intended.
Why South Carolina? Well, the site notes that:
According to the Southern Focus Poll by the University of North Carolina, hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians already think the South would be better off as an independent nation.
Hey, there’s a novel idea! And this sovereign mindset will come in handy when the exiting Christians execute their game plan:
South Carolina will secure the rights of her citizens by interposing her authority under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The federal government operates outside its delegated powers in the areas of education, religion, abortion, domestic behavior, intrastate communication, intrastate commerce, taxation, welfare, healthcare, and a host of other subjects. Most powers concerning these topics are reserved to the States under the 10th Amendment. Therefore, we will see to it that South Carolina resumes her governmental authority in these matters and that federal mandates in violation of the 10th Amendment are ignored by the State.
Funny, I thought some of those things were included in the U.S. Constitution.
At any rate, if you’re a resident of South Carolina, prepare to be saved by incoming political liberators.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees parallels to the Libertarian Free State movement. I think people were talking about New Hampshire for that.
Thing is, I could actually admire the gumption of any group that did this sort of thing (as opposed to groups that just talk smack about it), even if I don’t agree with the underlying principles. Uprooting your family and relocating is a big commitment.
The last group that did this sort of thing was the Mormons in moving to what became Utah. In that case they had their religious convictions to motivate them. They also had a negative motivation: Mormons were being run out of town all over the place in incidents like the Navu Temple fire. They really needed their own state far away from everyone else.
I’d be surprised if any of these current efforts will be anywhere near that successful, if they’re successful at all. The current groups don’t have enough positive or negative motivations for moving.
One of my curses in life is that I know more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its history than any Gentile should need to know. So just a couple of points here.
The Mormon exodus to Utah is just a little different from the South Carolina “independence” movement Brian writes about, since at that time Utah wasn’t a state. I have to check my history here, but my recollection is that at the time Utah wasn’t even within the jurisdiction of the United States (which made it extremely attractive to Brigham Young and Co.); at any rate if it was within the jurisdiction of the United States there wasn’t any organized territorial government in Utah at the time the Mormons settled there.
The other thing: the Nauvoo Temple fire wasn’t a motivation for the Mormons to leave Nauvoo. In fact, the Temple was unfinished at the time the Mormons left (February, 1846) and was completed (I don’t have the date of completion on hand, but it was dedicated in May of 1846) by a small Mormon remnant who didn’t leave Nauvoo. It was gutted by a fire in 1848, a tornado blew down one of the walls in 1850, two other walls were shortly demolished (for safety reasons) later that year. The citizens of Nauvoo finally razed the remaining wall in 1865.
For what it’s worth, the LDS began construction of a new Nauvoo Temple in 1999, which was completed and dedicated in June of 2002. From the pictures of the temple, which you can find here, the new temple is pretty much a replica of the old one (at least from what I remember of models of the old temple at the LDS Visitors center when I visited Nauvoo several times before the new temple was built).
And no, I’m not Mormon; I’m just an ex-Catholic with a strong interest in indigenous American religious movements. 🙂
Yeah, Utah wasn’t a state yet. That’s why I said “to what became Utah.” Interesting Utah fact: the state constitution/charter forbids polygamy.
Thanks for the history on Nauvoo (and the corrected spelling). I only know about it because my wife lived in Illinois for a while and visited it with some Mormon friends where she worked.