Christian nationalist podcasters want to take over Tennessee county

Christian nationalists say they want to take a Tennessee county back to before the civil rights movement, vowing to build a new community where people look and think like them.

Two podcasters and evangelical writers, Pastor Andrew Isker and C. Jay Engel, told WTVF in Nashville that they want to attract hundreds or even thousands to Jackson County.

“The question is, is there room for like-minded Christians and patriots in Tennessee? Yes, there’s an imperative for like-minded Christians to gather and fight with us,” Engel said during an episode in October. “We need Christian nationalism in one state.”

WTVF spent months reviewing episodes of the pair’s show, Contra Mundum, in which they discuss how God made men to lead, and that the current democratic setup of the country has ruined it.

Isker, who is a pastor in Minnesota, and Engel, who moved to Tennessee from California, say they want to build a town led by someone who will lead by what they see as the Christian ideals they believe in.

In an episode in July, Isker announced the plan, saying he was “all in” and that both men were going to live in Tennessee, citing Democratic legislation passed to benefit immigrants or protect abortion as reasons to leave Minnesota and California.

A pastor in the state, Kevin Riggs, who leads Franklin Community Church, told WTVF that the two were promoting white nationalism.

“It doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian. It doesn’t matter whether you are an atheist. It doesn’t matter if you are a Buddhist. It doesn’t matter what, you are going to be forced to live by this narrow interpretation of Christian principles,” he said.

Research by nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in 2023 found that 30 percent of Americans viewed themselves as either Christian nationalism adherents (10 percent) or sympathizers (20 percent), while the rest said they were skeptics or rejectors.

Those who lived in Republican states were more likely to hold Christian nationalist beliefs than those in Democratic ones. In Tennessee, 45 percent of those surveyed identified as being in support of the movement and 61 percent voted for Donald Trump in 2020.

More than half of those who identified with Christian nationalist beliefs thought there was a “storm coming” that would sweep away the elites who were in power and “restore the rightful leaders,” researchers found.

“Christian nationalism is a very centrist, moderate, liberally oriented political endeavor,” Engel said in October.

The report found that Isker and Engel pair promote the idea of “Heritage Americans,” which appears to mostly mean those of white, European descent, but they have also laughed off some of their claims in various episodes, saying they have just been having fun.

Newsweek reached out to Isker and Engel via Isker’s church website for comment Monday afternoon.