Focus on the fundies: a 'Christian coup d'etat'

Man, I don't know how I missed this. A fundamentalist sect called Christian Exodus is coalescing in South Carolina to establish a government based on "Christian principles". They plan to "force a constitutional crisis" by gathing enough supporters to affect local elections, then possibly secede.

The wrangling to see who's more conservative leads to unintentional comedy:

Despite its cynicism about the Republican Party, Christian Exodus plans to use the party's popularity to its advantage. Rather than running for office themselves, Christian Exodus activists hope to influence which Republican candidates win local primaries.

"All we have to do is put our guy on the ballot with an 'R' sign," Burnell said. "It could be a corpse and (the locals will) vote for him."

Local Republicans, however, point out that they would never sit idly by while Christian Exodus took over. "He talks about 2,000 activists, but I can easily get 4,000 activists," said Bob Taylor, a Republican Greenville County councilman and a dean at Bob Jones University. "There's incredible dedication to the [Republican] cause."

I love that the guy who is being positioned as the sane one is a dean at Bob Jones University, where interracial dating was banned until 2000.

Biggest red flag? The man who founded the group is an "investment adviser." I predict that in a few years the guy is either going to flee with the group's money or be under federal indictment.