The False Prophets Of Our Republic

     As a Christian I have been taught to be aware of false prophets. False prophets are those individuals who use the scriptures and any other forms of Christina doctrine to advance their own selfish goals. The false prophet will make his followers believe that he will advance them down the path of righteousness to the promised land, but too often he just takes the faithful further away from their spiritual goals. As a patriotic American I have likewise been instructed in the methods used by  the false prophets of our republic.
     I am sure many reading this will recognize the persons I am referring to, the supporters and advocates of secession by their state. It is hard to make the case that someone is being both patriotic and secessionist, the concepts after all are mutually exclusive. But the secessionists use the founding documents of this country, and the political beliefs of Madison and Jefferson to support their proposition of breaking from the union created in part by the concepts proffered by those two men. Neither of which believed in secession, the union being of paramount importance to the principles they burned into the founding.
     In their time, the Founders faced the issue of secession. First with Rhode Island, which did not even send a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and then during the War of 1812 when the New England states met to decide on the issue of seceding from the union. Later the issue of secession was so important to Southern states, and preserving the union so important to the Northern states, that a bloody civil war was fought over it.
     The modern day secessionists have much passion, but little else. They do not seem able to think beyond the act itself to what happens after. Do they print their own money, have their own relationships with foreign governments, raise an army of their own, etc.? More importantly do they deny those in their state, who were not in favor of secession, their United States citizenship and the benefits thereof, and force them to join their now "liberated" country? Or do they simply deny these persons the right to live in their state?
     I would not want anything I have written here to suggest that those who believe in secession are in any way nefarious with mischievous intentions. It is that their passions have inflamed them beyond the bounds of rational thought. And these passions have been fueled by the profiteers of discord, disjointedness, and disunion. These political conmen prey on those burdened by the excessiveness of government to push their own personal agendas, usually rooted in making money.
     Our hope as a nation is not in smashing the boulder of our union into much weaker pebbles, but remaining intact and changing those things which threaten individual liberty. A boulder is much less likely to be moved than a pebble, which can be kicked down the street by even a child. Situations are never as bad as the worse assessment, nor as good as the most positive one. A true patriot does not abandon his country, especially in perilous times. The mark of a true patriot is the ability to persevere through the storm and help guide the ship of state to the shores of reasonable governance and personal liberty.