It’s no secret that the a number of the key national debatesabortion, evolution, same-sex marriageare predicated on what many consider to be irreconcilable differences, capable of being settled only by fighting, as with the Civil War, or by breaking away, as proposed by the current Christian Exodus movement, the basics of which are described by ReligionNewsBlog.com:

A Texas group wants conservative Christians to move to South Carolina 12,000 at a time to form a biblically inspired government and secede from the United States. Decrying a national tolerance of abortion and gay marriage, and the teaching of evolution, ChristianExodus.org hopes to achieve a majority of like-minded Christians in the state by 2016, the planned year of secession.

The movement’s drawing criticism from non-crazy Christians, such as the folks behind ReligionBlog, who characterize the views the Exodus Movement’s leader28-year-old Cory Burnell, a Christian schoolteacher and mobile phone store manager in Tyler, Texasthusly:

Cory Burnell's attempts to create a theocracy are unbiblical. Christians are not called or encouraged to set up separate states and/or countries. According to the Bible, their citizenship is in heaven.

Further mud is slung by Christians already residing in Burnell's would-be Promised Land of South Carolina:

"Doesn't South Carolina have enough problems already?” asked the Rev. Joe Darby, pastor of Morris Brown AME church in Charleston, when told of the group. "Groups with strange opinions and strange beliefs pop up every once in a while. ... I would tell these people to re-evaluate their faith and get a life.”

Good advice, but unlikely to be taken, and Cory Burnell's could be a name to remember.

Full ReligionBlog report here.