Interesting News from South Carolina

In today's Washington Post On Faith section is a column reporting on the approval by the South Carolina legislature of a new Christian license plate. According to the piece, this is not the first action taken by officials in South Carolina with a religious twist. They have also "allow[ed] the Lord's Prayer to be added to civic displays on the "foundations of American law and government," allow[ed] public schools to teach courses in the Old and New Testaments, and allow[ed] legislative bodies to open with sectarian prayers."

South Carolina seems to be particularly open to actions of this kind. It was selected by the Christian Exodus organization in 2003 as the target location for Christians to live in order to secede from the United States and establish a true Christian government. According the Christian Exodus website, "ChristianExodus.org was founded in November of 2003 in response to the moral degeneration of American culture, and the rampant corruption among the powers that be. The initial goal was to move thousands of Christian constitutionalists to South Carolina to accelerate the return to self-government based upon Christian principles at the local and State level. This project continues to this day, with the ultimate goal of forming an independent Christian nation that will survive after the decline and fall of the financially and morally bankrupt American empire. We have learned, however; that the chains of our slavery and dependence upon godless government have more of a hold on us than can be broken by simply moving to another State.

As many like-minded Christian activists pursue independent Christian living without relocating, the scope has expanded to promote "personal secession" though many and various tracks, wherever they can be implemented. The long process of disentanglement from idolatrous dependencies includes such practices of moving towards a home-centered economy, with intentional community, home-schooling, home-gardening, house churches, health-cost sharing, private exchange, unlicenced ministry, and any other way in which we might live free and godly lives in Christ Jesus, without prostrating ourselves to eat from the hand of the imperial magistrate."

So, as you consider this intersection of Christian church and state, how do you feel about a state offering a license plate that is decidedly focused on one religion? How would you feel if the license plate emphasized Islam or Buddhism instead of Christianity? Would you join a movement to form a "Christian based" government in a particular state?