Two things happened in 2003 that Cory Burnell said sent him over the edge. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a state law against sodomy in Texas, and a federal judge ordered Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building.

Burnell, founder of Christian Exodus, a group encouraging conservative Christians to move to South Carolina to try to dominate local and state politics, decided then that the Republican Party had no intention of carrying out the social reforms it espoused.

He joined the Constitution Party and became a county contact for Smith County, Texas.

Along the way, he had found like-minded activists in another group called the League of the South. He joined the league and soon became a regional director for the Southern secessionist organization, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a "hate group."

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The league, which fought to keep the Confederate flag flying atop the Statehouse in Columbia and against a holiday honoring Martin Luther King in Greenville County, shares the Christian Exodus vision for South Carolina, said Burnell and Ed Eichelberger of Simpsonville, a member of the league's state board of directors.

Both groups see secession as a possible remedy for what they say is federal intrusion that is out of tune with conservative values.

Although Burnell, 29, is no longer a member of the league -- he left Texas and now lives in California -- he said, "I have no objection to being a member of the League of the South. It's a fine organization."

On its Web site, the league encourages its members to attend a Christian Exodus conference Saturday at the Greenville Hilton.

"There have already been several Southern-minded Christians that have moved to South Carolina to help us gain independence, and we need to encourage others to come join us. So, please attend if at all possible," the Web site urges in a posting under the name of league state director Robert B. Hayes.

About 100 people have registered for the conference, more than half of them from South Carolina, Burnell said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization in Montgomery, Ala., has labeled the league a neo-Confederate hate group.

League members say they believe in equal rights for people of all races.

"For us it's hilarious to be called a hate group because we have black members, we have Jewish members," said Eichelberger. "Its ridiculous."

Said Burnell: "If they could show me the literature that there was any kind of hatred in their stance or beliefs, then of course I wouldn't want to be any part of that."

Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the league is "completely opposed" to interracial marriage and its leaders want to create "a Christian society in which different classes of people would have different rights."

Eichelberger said the league has members who are in interracial marriages and that it's "totally false" that the league wants to create a society of classes.

"They are reaching for straws to try and come out and label anybody a hate group that differs with their socialistic agenda," he said.

Whether or not race is an element in their beliefs, Christian Exodus has little chance of gaining strength in a state that is growing more diverse, said Paul Guy, president of the Greenville branch of the NAACP.

"The pool they're trying to pull from is a very limited pool," he said.

Burnell, however, sees a field ripe for harvest.

He's working to forge a coalition of evangelical Christians and conservative, anti-federalist political groups that he said he believes will form the basis of a shift in the way local and state government relates to the federal government. His vision is of local governments simply ignoring federal mandates when they conflict with local opinion.

As an example, he cites the decision of Anderson City Council to continue offering prayers in Jesus' name, in spite of a federal court ruling disallowing the mention of a specific deity, which The Associated Press reported.

"That's Christian Exodus in a nutshell, my friend. We just want people like that -- people like Judge Roy Moore," Burnell said.