The fight over Christian nationalism in a small Tennessee town

As Josh Abbotoy gazes upon the lush green woods and pastures of Tennessee’s Appalachian Mountains, he describes what he plans to build here: a community of dozens of homes, centered around a working farm and, most importantly, a church.

“Customers will probably buy and build where we are now,” he said as we climbed to the top of the ridge.

Mr. Abotoy is the founder of Ridgerunner, a real estate company that has purchased land here and in neighboring Kentucky. But his housing development is no ordinary housing project.

Mr. Abotoy, who is well known in conservative American circles, describes his development as an “affinity-based community” – for people interested not just in the peace and quiet of rural life but also in right-wing ideals.

“Faith, family and freedom,” he said. “These are the values ​​we strive to promote.”

Initially, he didn’t attract much attention from locals when he opened his store in Jackson County.

But in late 2024, local television news reports aired controversial statements by two of Mr. Abbotoy’s first and most outspoken clients: Andrew Isker, a pastor and author from Minnesota, and C Jay Engel, a businessman from California.

Calling themselves “Christian nationalists,” they question whether modern values ​​such as women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement were a good idea and call for mass deportations of legal immigrants on a scale far beyond President Donald Trump’s current plans. Another thing they sometimes say is: “Abolish the 20th Century.”

Television reports sounded alarm bells for some local residents.

“You don’t know who these people are or what they’re capable of,” said Nan Coons, a middle-aged woman with a thick Southern accent during a recent interview near the town square that forms part of Gainsborough.

“So it’s scary.”

Although Abertoy himself does not consider himself a Christian nationalist, he said concerns about tenants are overblown.

The development of the Ridgerrunner has since attracted national attention. Gainsborough, a city with about 900 residents and only one traffic light, now finds itself embroiled in a dispute that foreshadows a larger political battle.

Mr Isker and Mr Engel announced the move to Gainsborough last year on their podcast Contra Mundum (Latin for “Contra the World”).

Their show, now taped in a studio at Ridgerrunner’s Gainsborough office, encourages fans to reach into small communities, seek local influence, and join their fight to place strictly conservative Christian values ​​at the heart of American governance.

“If you can build a place where you can seize political power, that could mean you can be a part of the county commissioners (board) or even get input from the county commissioners and the sheriff… Being able to do those things is very, very valuable,” Iskel said on one episode.

In October, Mr. Engel popularized the idea of ​​”American heritage”—a vague concept but one that applied primarily to Anglo-Protestants whose ancestors had arrived in the United States at least a century earlier. He said it wasn’t explicitly white, but it did have “strong racial associations.”

Calling for mass deportations of immigrants — including legal ones — he wrote: “People like Indians, Southeast Asians, Ecuadorians or immigrant Africans are the least able to integrate into society and should be sent home immediately.”

They also expressed anti-gay sentiments in their broadcasts and writings. The podcaster denies being a white nationalist.

Both are clients of Ridgerrunner, and Mr. Iskel’s church will move into the community’s chapel when it is completed.

Their stubborn views alarmed residents, and some locals formed an informal resistance group.

“I believe they have been trying to establish our town and our county as the headquarters of their Christian nationalist ideology,” said Diana Mandli, a prominent local businesswoman who most recently owned a bar in Gainsborough Center Square.

Late last year, Mandry took the lead in writing a message on a blackboard outside her store: “If you are an individual or group that promotes the inferiority or oppression of others, please go eat somewhere else.”

More signs of opposition to the new development followed. When people heard the Ridge Runners were holding a meeting at a nearby fast food restaurant, dozens of people showed up to confront them.

Ms. Coons, whose ancestors have lived in Gainsborough since the Revolutionary War, said she spoke with Mr. Engel.

“He explained to me that what they were promoting was what he called a ‘family vote’…one vote per family and of course the husband of that family would be the only one voting” while women were excluded from the electorate.

Mr Engel has since said publicly that there was nothing “wrong” about women voting, although he did support the idea of ​​family suffrage.

Ms. Coons is used to living with neighbors with conservative views in a county where 80 percent of voters voted for Donald Trump in the last election.

But she and others left the protests more convinced than ever that their new neighbors’ beliefs were too extreme.

They say they do not want to drive them out of town but intend to sound the alarm about what they say are extreme views and thwart any future attempts to take over local government.

“This is where we have to draw the line,” Ms. Coons said.

Christian nationalism is a vague worldview with no single coherent definition.

At the extreme, as outlined by theorists including author Stephen Wolfe, Christian nationalists advocate rule by a “Christian prince”—an all-powerful religious dictator who rules over civil authorities and leads his subjects toward “godliness.”

Less extreme versions call for the explicit incorporation of Christian laws into the U.S. Code, for religious leaders to be strongly involved in politics, or simply for recognition of the Christian background of America’s Founding Fathers.

This multiple definitions create a strategic ambiguity that experts say helps Christian nationalism penetrate the mainstream.

Mr Abotoy’s development is still in its early stages – his company is building roads and organizing health infrastructure. When the BBC visited in November, workers were busy tearing down a dilapidated barn, one of many in Appalachia.

But business is booming. About half of the lots are already under contract. Mr Abbotoy expects the first homes to be completed by early 2027 and new customers to start moving in.

He said many of his clients are moving from heavily Democratic states like California and New York to heavily Republican Tennessee.

“People want to live in communities where they feel they share important values ​​with their neighbors,” he said.

Mr Abotoy said he did not call himself a Christian nationalist but called his clients’ criticism “ridiculous” and said they had no intention of trying to take over local government.

“They were talking about great ideas and books,” he said. As for some of their more controversial views, he insisted that “throwing back the 20th century could mean a lot of things. A lot of conservatives would say we took a lot of wrong turns.”

Iskel and Engel did not respond to multiple requests for comment and a series of questions.

Gainsborough’s tournament attracts players from as far away as the small Tennessee town.

Mr. Abotoy, who attended Harvard Law School, is also a partner at New Founding, a conservative venture capital fund, and the founder of the American Reformers website, which publishes the writings of many other prominent Christian nationalists.

Meanwhile, his opponents have received research assistance and advice from the national organization Core States, which was set up last year to tackle authoritarianism in small communities. It is funded by a range of left-wing organizations. Core states declined our request for an interview.

Members of Ridgerrunner point to the group as proof that the boycott of their projects is orchestrated by powerful liberals. Locals say this is ridiculous.

“No one wrote me a check to say anything,” Ms. Coons said.

In Gainsborough, everyone on all sides saw a bigger story – a massive political battle playing out in rural America.

Republicans have made huge gains in rural areas this century, and Trump expanded his lead in rural communities in 2024, winning 69% of the vote. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently announced an eight-figure investment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a large portion of which will be dedicated to winning over rural voters, according to reports.

“(Democrats) are definitely going to refocus on rural engagement,” Mr. Abotoy said. “At the same time, there’s a wave of people moving to small towns in America precisely because they like the Bible Belt, they like the conservative, traditional culture.”

But Nan Coons and her allies say they are not prepared to cede rural areas like her hometown to Christian nationalists.

“If we’re going to reverse this trend, start in your streets, start in your neighborhoods, start in your towns,” she said.

“I have to stand for something and this is what I stand for.”