You won’t find reporting and analysis like this anywhere else—and it’s only possible because of subscribers who support this effort. Thank you! — Phil

As economic pressures gut local newsrooms across the country, white nationalist figures see an untapped opening: stepping into media deserts where there are few journalists left to sound the alarm.

“Local media has been dying all over America, which means that there’s essentially no real way to hold local governments accountable—and they can do whatever they want,” Kevin DeAnna told an invitation-only gathering of approximately 50 white nationalists in Rome.

Breaking into a broad smile, he excitedly added: “You should be fantasizing about this. This is a good thing.”

DeAnna, a prolific propagandist who has operated under a variety of pseudonyms and who has called for turning the country into a White ethnostate, celebrated the decline of local media earlier this year during an annual retreat hosted by the white nationalist Counter Currents publishing house.

“So, if you wanna get the most bang for your buck, activate rural America—‘cause that’s where White people are,” DeAnna argued in a video that was just recently posted online.

“And these are White people that are not voting. These are White people who are angry and who are radical and have no one talking to them.”

According to the most recent report from the Northwestern University’s Medill School, the “steady, unrelenting decline of local newspapers … is leading to an ever-rising number of news deserts, now 213 counties.”

That collapse of local press coverage in rural America creates a dangerous vacuum—one that allows extremist networks to operate without accountability.

Filling that void is precisely why I launched ConfrontTheHate.com.

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‘Pitch to a Billionaire’

DeAnna’s remarks were part of a “Pitch to a Billionaire” panel during the Rome retreat that focused on how white nationalists could solicit funding from the world’s wealthiest people.

Ironically, the white nationalist figure met with tech billionaire Peter Thiel in 2016, according to reporting by BuzzFeed and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“DeAnna’s work under the pseudonym ‘Gregory Hood’ drew upon foundational white nationalist and neo-Nazi texts that have inspired numerous acts of domestic terrorism,” SPLC senior researcher Hannah Gais wrote.

For the panel discussion, DeAnna proposed that “the single most effective way to build political power with the least investment would be to start a political action committee and get-out-the-vote effort for White rural voters.”

Rural areas have an outsized political influence in America, he asserted, and “it requires very little money and very little turnout to win a lot of these elections.”

Embracing the widely discredited “constitutional sheriffs” notion that county sheriffs have enormous power to nullify federal and state laws, DeAnna pushed for a focus on electing sheriffs who would take the law into their own hands.

He argued:

“I think you could take over a whole county with ten people. It would not take much…. Ten people who have some idea how to campaign, and we’re talking unlocking tens of millions of dollars, jobs for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty people, real state authority, real law enforcement power, setting up a fortress that leftists can’t even go into without losing everything.”

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Other billionaire pitches

Among those joining DeAnna for the discussion was Jared Taylor, who publishes the American Renaissance website and hosts an annual gathering of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and other extremists at a Tennessee state park.

Taylor suggested approaching a far-right billionaire with a plea to become “the George Soros for our side,” funding white nationalist groups around the world.

“I’m not asking you to fund yet another media company or another think tank. I’m asking you to endow an entire movement,” Taylor’s pitch continued.

“Campaigns for mayor, state house, city council can be swayed with twenty thousand dollars, thirty thousand dollars.”

Another white nationalist activist, attorney and former neo-Nazi David Zsutty, made the case for a billionaire to fund lawsuits to target their enemies.

“If you are the defendant, whether it be in a civil or criminal case, you have already lost—the only question is how much,” Zsutty said.

“Even if you recover attorney fees, which are usually quite substantial, you will never recover the lost time, stress, and effort.”

Counter Currents editor Greg Johnson has described the annual gathering as “private, invitation-only retreats for our writers, donors, and friends” to “foster real-world fellowships and collaborations.”

This year’s retreat took place inside the Rome headquarters of CasaPound, a prominent Italian neo-fascist group that Johnson himself characterized as a “militant organization.”

It is not clear who funds these gatherings.

Have you noticed a decline in local news coverage in your own community? Let me know in the comments below.

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Most parents assume online hate or political extremism will show up in obvious ways—loud slogans, violent images, or clear hate symbols. But today’s worst digital threats start much more quietly, often disguised as memes, games, and casual “friendships” that slowly pull kids into harmful behavior.

I loved this conversation with Dr. Amy Cooter, deputy director and co-founder of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, because it is a prime example of trying to arm you with action steps, rather than wallowing in despair.

In this video, she explains what nihilistic violent extremism is, how it shows up online, the warning signs parents might spot, and what you can do to keep the conversation open before a problem snowballs.

Click here to read an FBI bulletin about what parents need to know.

Please check out the video, then tell me what you think in the comments below.

Action steps you can take:

• Help this independent project grow by sharing this post and all my posts on your own social media!

• Please consider becoming a paid supporter.

• Subscribe to my YouTube page, and watch, like, and share the videos.

• Send me your ideas!

Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

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Welcome to ConfrontTheHate.com!

I’m veteran investigative journalist Phil Williams.

A few years back, I became deeply concerned about the rise of hate within the places we call “home,” how it was showing up in town halls, school board meetings, local elections, and everyday communities across America.

And, by “hate,” I don’t mean everyday political disagreements.

I’m talking about organized ideologies and networks—white supremacy, neo-Nazism, certain strains of Christian nationalism, and conspiracy-driven extremism—that treat entire groups of people as inferior because of their race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or identity.

You can see more of my story in the video below:

Originally, I named this project “Hate Comes to Main Street,” but I came to realize I wanted to accomplish even more.

ConfrontTheHate.com was built to confront the realities facing our communities head-on through clear, independent journalism—while focusing on what matters most: finding practical paths forward together.

Guided by a simple mission—Confront the Hate, Find the Hope—this site offers deep, reflective analysis on how extremism impacts everyday life, highlights essential reporting from around the country, and shines a spotlight on the courage of ordinary people standing up for their communities.

Among the highlights, my own reporting here has:

• Exposed the Young Republican group behind a racist, antisemitic, misogynistic, Christian nationalist X account appealing to other young men.

• Revealed how white nationalist groups in America studied the race riots in Belfast for lessons on avoiding detection by law enforcement.

• Documented the anti-democratic ambitions of Christian nationalists, as well as their desire to take away the rights of women to vote.

• Confronted a Christian nationalist candidate for governor who wants to outlaw Islam and Hinduism, and deny the morning-after pill to rape victims.

• Uncovered associations between KKK-loving figures and forces who are trying to push the Southern Baptist Convention farther to the right.

• Critiqued a 60 Minutes segment that unintentionally amplified a fascist group’s rebranding efforts.

• Challenged provably false claims by the Trump administration about its indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This is the kind of solid, groundbreaking reporting that you can expect here!

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Why I’m the right person for this project

With 40 years of experience, I am one of the most highly acclaimed investigative journalists in the country. Some of you may know me better by the nickname bestowed upon me by HBO’s John Oliver: “Nashville’s Nosiest Bitch.”

I’ve spent years looking hate in the eye, examining the rising influence of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Christian nationalists, QAnon true believers, and the conspiracy theories that feed them. (You can see my confrontation with members of the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League in above video.)

That reporting has been recognized nationally, including with two prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards.

Over the years, hatemongers have called me vile names, and they have threatened me and my family.

Still, I persevere because, from my perspective, hate and political extremism have become a brush fire that threatens to erupt into a raging wildfire if ignored.

If you don’t know about it, you can’t fight it.

Click below to read what readers have said about why they became subscribers:

But I also know we cannot just wallow in despair.

We must Find the Hope for a better tomorrow. That’s the reason behind the series of essays titled Hate in a Hallmark Town.

I have tried to highlight those reasons for hope, suggest books that I find meaningful, and bring you fascinating conversations (like the one below).

By joining as a free subscriber, you get thoughtful, reliable journalism delivered directly to your inbox—no ads, no algorithms, and no unnecessary noise.

• Stay Informed Without Being Overwhelmed: Clear, well-researched insights help you understand complex issues without feeling bombarded by the daily news cycle. I dig deep into the dark side of the internet so you don’t have to.

• See the Big Picture: Learn how broader national movements manifest in local communities and why paying attention to local civic life matters.

• Discover Real Reasons for Hope: Beyond documenting the problems, we highlight real stories of resilience, community action, and progress.

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Become a part of something bigger

This project will fail without your support!

ConfrontTheHate.com isn’t supported by my corporate employer. I alone am responsible for its content. Ultimately, its long-term viability depends on readers like you who decide this kind of independent journalism is worth sustaining.

Choosing a paid subscription directly fuels this mission while unlocking exclusive community features:

• Join the Conversation: Participate in member-only comment sections to share perspectives, ask questions, and exchange ideas in a moderated space.

• Connect in Community Chats: Access periodic live chats and discussions centered on community resilience and local engagement.

• Power Uncompromising Journalism: Your paid subscription helps cover open-records fees, research tools, and the legal protections required to expose extremism without fear or corporate interference.

Founding Members can have an even larger impact. You set your own level of support for this stand against hate. (Here’s how to upgrade to Founding status.)

Confront the hate. Find the hope.

Thank you for being here! By subscribing, you become part of a community committed to understanding what’s happening in our towns and neighborhoods — and finding real reasons for hope.

If this mission matters to you, I’d be grateful if you’d subscribe.

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You won’t find reporting and analysis like this anywhere else—and it’s only possible because of subscribers who support this effort. Thank you! — Phil

A former Southern Poverty Law Center employee and persistent Trump critic has been arrested as a result of a superseding indictment in the Department of Justice’s on-going prosecution of the civil rights organization.

Heidi Beirich, 59, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and submitting false statements to a federally insured bank. As with the original indictment, the charges focus on an undercover informant program that the SPLC previously operated to infiltrate various hate groups.

At the core of the DOJ’s case is the controversial allegation that SPLC donors were defrauded when their money was used to pay informants in the upper echelons of the groups the SPLC was supposedly working to dismantle.

“We’ve said from the beginning [in] virtually every criminal case, the fact that an indictment is returned doesn’t end the investigation,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters during a morning news conference. “It’s just part of the investigation in most cases, which is certainly true in this case.”

Although Blanche mistakenly referred to Beirich as SPLC’s former chief financial officer, her LinkedIn profile lists her actual role as director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project until her departure seven years ago.

Among her duties, she was involved in writing investigative profiles of various extremist groups for the SPLC’s “Hatewatch” publications.

Watch my interview earlier this year with Heidi Beirich below:

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What are the accusations?

As Confront the Hate previously reported, earlier speculation about Beirich’s role stemmed largely from a misreading of the initial court filings.

According to the superseding indictment, Beirich and other SPLC employees opened bank accounts in the names of fictitious companies to funnel payments to informants inside the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the National Alliance, and other extremist organizations.

Prosecutors fault Beirich and the SPLC for using charitable contributions to copy documents that one informant had stolen from the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi outfit based in West Virginia.

“Beirich used the copies, knowing they were stolen, as the basis for a story published on ‘Hatewatch,’” the charging document reads.

It also claims that Beirich used $6,000 in nonprofit funds to pay another insider to take the blame for the theft of the documents.

Perhaps the most salacious of the allegations revolves around a romantic relationship that Beirich allegedly developed with one of the confidential sources at the same time she was overseeing payments to those field sources.

Between 2015 and 2021, approximately $140,000 in payments to one informant was deposited into a joint bank account that Beirich shared with that person, the filing claims. The pair also allegedly lived together.

“Beirich then used donors’ money to pay the couple’s personal living expenses,” it adds.

While raising ethical questions, the indictment contains no hint that higher-ups inside the Southern Poverty Law Center knew about the relationship, nor does it suggest the informant did not perform the services for which he was paid.

Since leaving the SPLC, Beirich has co-founded and served as chief strategy officer for the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), an organization that frequently offers scathing critiques of administration policies.

A review of recent headlines offers an overview of how Beirich’s work may have put an additional target on her back:

• “Trump’s Red Scare”

• “Trump is Trying His Election Denial Playbook Again—Don’t Believe Him”

• “Sore Losers: Why Trump is Obsessed with Passing the SAVE Act”

• “Voter Fears Grow as Trump Continues to Lie About Election Integrity”

• “Open Season: How the Trump Administration Has Left Americans Exposed to Far-Right Violence”

• “Faith, Family, Erasure: Pride Month in Trump’s America, 2026”

As I reported this week, U.S. District Judge Emily Marks rejected an SPLC motion to allow the defense to dig into questions about whether there is evidence of vindictive prosecution on the part of the Trump administration.

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Update: Statement from Beirich attorney:

Counsel for Dr. Beirich, Michael J. Proctor of the law firm of Iversen Proctor LLP, released the following statement:

“A free and fair society does not use the justice system to silence its political opponents. Heidi Beirich has dedicated her life to fighting hate groups and extremist movements like the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other white supremacists. She has combatted these hateful, ugly, and un-American extremists and their repeated uses of violence and intimidation in order to promote a fairer, safer, and more just America. Her decades-long record of success dismantling hate groups—and the resulting threats to her life—speak volumes. For this, she has been indicted.

“Dr. Beirich is innocent, and this case is without merit. We believe the charges against her and the SPLC are politically motivated, and Dr. Beirich has been targeted in this case because of the important work she has done to combat hate groups and extremists. Violent extremists have not stopped or intimidated Dr. Beirich from her vital work during her time at the SPLC or in the six and a half years after she left the SPLC. Dr. Beirich won’t be silenced or intimidated by the government’s false and politicized allegations now. She welcomes the opportunity to present the truth in court.”

You can check out my other reporting on the SPLC investigation here.

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We discussed the post below:

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You won’t find reporting and analysis like this anywhere else—and it’s only possible because of subscribers who support this effort. Thank you! — Phil

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This much seems indisputable:

Donald Trump’s administration viewed the Southern Poverty Law Center as an enemy, and officials were ecstatic in their celebrations of the indictment of the legendary civil rights organization on federal fraud charges.

“This is another Democratic hoax,” the president declared after his Justice Department indicted a group that had often been critical of his policies.

As a result, SPLC lawyers had argued the administration’s often-hyperbolic statements justified a motion to dismiss the indictment for vindictive prosecution—or, at least, to allow the defense to dig into prosecutors’ motives.

But in a 39-page opinion released Friday, U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks rejected the SPLC’s motion—in essence, because there are no DOJ fingerprints on Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson’s decision to seek the indictment.

And, to continue the metaphor, defense attorneys will not be able to dust the case for any such prints.

“The Court has little trouble concluding that the SPLC offers insufficient objective evidence that Mr. Davidson or any other prosecutor in the Middle District of Alabama was vindictively motivated to indict the SPLC for the exercise of its First Amendment rights,” Marks wrote.

“Nor does the SPLC provide evidence that Mr. Davidson was directed to bring the present charges by a superior with a vindictive motive.”

At the center of the indictment are questions about millions of dollars the group spent to operate an informant program that, Attorney General Todd Blanche argued, was “manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”

The SPLC has emphatically rejected such allegations.

In her opinion, Judge Marks—a Trump appointee and Federalist Society member—blasted both the government and defense for legal briefs that read “like much of our modern political discourse, heavy on heated rhetoric, better suited for cable news, or a podcast”—ignoring the normal admonitions that prosecutors must be held to a higher standard in order to protect the rights of the accused.

Marks even gave Attorney General Todd Blanche credit, in his announcement of the SPLC indictment, for saying: “The indictment speaks for itself. I’m not going to talk outside the four corners of the indictment.”

In fact, as my previous posts have shown, the evidence demonstrates that Blanche and DOJ officials have often strayed outside those four corners.

And, as you will see below, Judge Marks’ decision overlooks or downplays many of the SPLC’s arguments.

You can read my prior reporting on the SPLC indictment here.

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Let’s break it down

‘Whistleblower reports’

“In the days immediately following the announcement of charges, whistleblower reports filed with congressional lawmakers accused top Justice Department officials of pressuring prosecutors to rush an indictment of the SPLC, despite significant concerns about the merits of the case.”

That argument, contained in the SPLC motion, relies on accusations in an April 2026 letter from House Democrats Jamie Raskin and Mary Gay Scanlon.

But, in her opinion, Judge Marks appears to completely ignore the whistleblower issue.

Trump: SPLC ‘a total scam’

The president of the United States—whom the Trump administration has argued is the nation’s real chief law enforcement officer—celebrated the SPLC indictment in a Truth Social post that called the group “one of the greatest political scams in American History.”

During an appearance on 60 Minutes after the indictment, Trump called the SPLC “a total scam run by the Democrats” and claimed the group “funded” the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 “to make me look bad.”

And, in an Oval Office press conference, he claimed the SPLC was “actually supporting” hate groups and that they “want to rig elections.”

Yet, Judge Marks seems to have embraced what some might call the “crazy uncle” view of the president’s rantings:

“President Trump’s rhetoric is (rather famously) wide-ranging, and he has undoubtedly been critical of the SPLC. However, the SPLC fails to establish that President Trump’s statements evince animus on the part of the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama.”

In other words, “he says a lot of crazy stuff, but you cannot prove that the prosecutors who work for him were following his lead.”

Marks’ ruling also ignores a history with the Trump administration of the president personally calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to target his enemies, as well as the finding by a federal judge in Nashville that the administration had engaged in vindictive prosecution of Abrego Garcia.

Patel: SPLC ‘inspired violence’

In October 2025, the SPLC joined more than 300 other non-profit groups in denouncing President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 as a “reprehensible and dangerous” effort to “defund, discredit, and dismantle nonprofit groups” in violation of the First Amendment.

Two days later, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the Bureau was ending its cooperation with the SPLC, saying it had “even inspired violence.”

Again, Judge Marks saw no reason to explore whether Patel’s public statements were part of a DOJ agenda to bring down the SPLC.

“There is no evidence that Mr. Patel or the FBI’s perceived ‘ill will . . . actually motivated [the SPLC’s] prosecution,’” Marks wrote.

And the SPLC, the ruling continued, would not be able to use the legal process to look for any such evidence.

Dhillon: SPLC indictment ‘personal’

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told Newsmax in April that the SPLC indictment was “personal” to her because she has seen “a lot of journalist friends . . . and groups that I’ve represented who have been targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

As a result, Dhillon continued, “It’s about time that we see some accountability.”

“In other words,” defense lawyers argued, “a high-ranking DOJ official said that if the SPLC criticized one of Dhillon’s ‘friends,’ criminal charges were the appropriate response.”

Again, Judge Marks found nothing in those remarks to justify exploring whether the DOJ was engaged in a vendetta.

“Whatever alleged animus Ms. Dhillon has for the SPLC, the SPLC fails to link that animus or her comments to the United States Attorney’s decision to charge the organization,” the opinion said.

Back in June, Marks ruled that the SPLC could not have access to grand jury transcripts to determine how prosecutors presented their case.

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Show me the evidence!

Meanwhile, SPLC lawyers have filed a new motion asking Judge Marks to order the DOJ to turn over exculpatory evidence that might show the group was not guilty of the charges brought by the Trump administration.

Here’s the basic argument:

“The Superseding Indictment charges that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) secretly used donor funds to pay informants ‘engaged in the active promotion of racist groups[.]’

“Information in the government’s possession showing the opposite—that the SPLC utilized informants to disrupt and dismantle these groups—constitutes exculpatory material that must be produced to the defense.

“Evidence demonstrating that rather than seeking to conceal the existence of its informant program, the SPLC actually shared information generated by that program with law enforcement is likewise material and favorable to the defense.

“Documents showing the SPLC’s coordination with law enforcement exist, and the government could readily collect and produce them. That should have happened without the need for a request or this motion. It did not.”

What do you think?

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Now, I have moved toward a more active, solutions-focused mindset:

Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

(You can read more about the rebrand here.)

To mark that milestone, I am posting a couple of videos about my journey. In the one above, I wanted to help you understand my passion, how I have seen parts of our society I cannot unsee, and why looking away is simply not an option.

And the video below shows why I am convinced this work meets the needs of the moment—and how your support helps to sustain me.

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Over the past six months, I have produced more than 80 individual posts for this one-of-a-kind publication—while remaining fully committed to my day job as chief investigative reporter for Nashville’s NewsChannel 5.

Which means lots of nights and weekends devoted to this passion project.

Among the big stories that I have broken here:

• Exposing the Young Republican group behind a racist, antisemitic, misogynistic, Christian nationalist X account appealing to other young men.

• Revealing how white nationalist groups in America studied the race riots in Belfast for lessons on avoiding detection by law enforcement.

• Confronting a Christian nationalist candidate for governor who wants to outlaw Islam and Hinduism, and deny the morning-after pill to rape victims.

• Uncovering associations between KKK-loving figures and forces who are trying to push the Southern Baptist Convention farther to the right.

• Critiquing a 60 Minutes segment that unintentionally amplified a fascist group’s rebranding efforts.

• Challenging provably false claims by the Trump administration about its indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

I put in the extra hours because I care deeply and believe we can come together as a country—if we can first see the undercurrents we are facing.

And get this: neo-Nazis and other extremists around the globe are watching what I am doing to shine a light on their activities, and they are not happy.

That’s a good thing!

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In the days ahead, I will be breaking more big stories here and continuing to bring you fascinating conversations with people who are making a difference.

But for today, as I celebrate this milestone, let me thank everyone who has chosen to join me on this journey.

We’re in this together!

Action steps you can take:

• Help this independent project grow by sharing this post and all my posts on your own social media!

• Please consider becoming a paid supporter.

• Subscribe to my YouTube page, and watch, like, and share the videos.

• Send me your ideas!

Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

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You won't find reporting and analysis like this anywhere else—and it's only possible because of subscribers who support this effort. Thank you! — Phil

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Christian nationalists did not win in Thursday’s primaries in Tennessee, but the outcome demonstrates that the controversial ideology still courses through the veins of the state’s Republican Party.

As U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn’s campaign prepared to celebrate her victory in her quest for governor, state Representative Jason Zachary led a thousand stalwart supporters in a prayer in which he thanked God for choosing their candidate to be the GOP nominee.

“You tell us in Daniel that you put people in power, Lord, and you remove those from power—and tonight, Lord, you’ve given us an opportunity, Lord, in November to vote for Senator Blackburn, who has been one of our nation’s and our state’s great leaders, Lord,” Zachary said in an almost two-minute prayer.

Watch Jason Zachary’s prayer below:

In case God had any doubts, Zachary assured him that he had indeed “chosen somebody who’s up for the task.”

(As an aside, it should be noted that such GOP faith in God’s divine wisdom is rarely expressed when a Democrat wins a political race.)

Zachary’s prayer seemed to be a nod to an unexpectedly strong showing by one of Blackburn’s competitors, self-identified Christian nationalist Monty Fritts.

Fritts—a state lawmaker who believed God was calling him, not Marsha Blackburn, to be the next governor—waged a quixotic battle on a shoestring budget against tens of millions spent by and for his opponents.

His views represented the most extreme version of Christian nationalism with his professed desire to impose his religious views on the rest of the state:

• Fritts wanted to ban mosques and said, if he could, he would outlaw the practice of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other “pagan” religions.

• He wanted not only to end same-sex marriage, he also expressed a desire to criminalize sexual relations between people of the same gender.

• He wanted to outlaw the morning-after pill, even for rape victims, and to institute the death penalty for abortion providers. And he refused to rule out executions for women who seek abortions.

• And, in the last days of the campaign, he put out a video noting that Christians had emailed him to express concerns about positions they viewed as being too extreme. His message to them: “Repent.”

Fritts also refused to disavow a Hitler-loving, Jew-hating volunteer who starred in a pair of social media videos for his campaign.

Yet, the Christian nationalist candidate still managed to gain the support of nearly a quarter of Republican voters, beating out the other two candidates in five of Tennessee’s 95 counties, coming in second in 23.

Throughout the primary campaign, Fritts’ supporters were far more motivated on social media than people backing his two opponents.

And, so far, the sense of disillusionment expressed by those voters—many of whom believed God was about to deliver a miracle that would shock the political establishment—seems palpable.

Which is why Blackburn’s team is likely praying that they can eventually convince those voters that God is indeed on her side.

Read my pre-election analysis here:

Crusader Andy Ogles

In the GOP primary for Tennessee’s fifth congressional district, voters had many reasons for rejecting incumbent Andy Ogles—and yet his Islamophobic, Christian nationalist views do not seem to have been a major factor.

As my own investigations had revealed:

• Ogles had claimed to be an economist; he was not.

• He had boasted about being trained in investigating international sex crimes; he had not.

• He had claimed to have done graduate work at Vanderbilt and Dartmouth; that was a lie.

• His resume showed he had served on the board of directors for the city of Franklin, Tennessee; Franklin does not have a board of directors.

• He used the stillborn death of a child to collect almost $25,000 for a children’s burial garden that was never built, then refused to show how the money was spent.

• He claimed to have personally loaned his campaign $320,000 in his first run for Congress in 2022; he did not have that kind of money to lend.

• The FBI opened a criminal investigation into those fraudulent campaign disclosures, but that investigation was canned by the Trump administration.

And still Ogles, with Donald Trump’s backing, managed to pull in almost 47 percent of the vote in his primary battle with former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher.

As part of his campaign, Ogles had openly embraced Christian nationalist themes, depicting himself in several AI videos as a Christian Crusader from the Middle Ages and openly calling for all Muslims to be forced out of the country.

He also drew online support from a shadowy “remigration” group that appeared to have ties with an anonymous Nazi sympathizer.

Yet, Hatcher—who, when asked, expressed his disagreement with Ogles about deporting all Muslims—never attacked the incumbent congressman for those views, nor did a special-interest PAC that spent $2 million to defeat Ogles.

In fact, Hatcher privately acknowledged that Ogles’ anti-Muslim rhetoric was one issue that seemed to resonate with voters.

Which is why, from my perspective, the Christian nationalists may have lost, but Christian nationalism remains a core ingredient in the GOP soup.

So, what do you think?

Action steps you can take:

• Help this independent project grow by sharing this post and all my posts on your own social media!

• Please consider becoming a paid supporter.

• Subscribe to my YouTube page, as well as watching, liking and sharing the videos.

• Send me your ideas!

We’re in this together!

Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

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You won't find reporting and analysis like this anywhere else—and it's only possible because of subscribers who support this effort. Thank you! — Phil

Last fall, Eric Orwoll traveled to Tennessee’s Montgomery Bell State Park to speak to a group of white nationalists, touting his vision for Whites-only communities in America.

And there seemed to be little doubt about that vision.

After all, American Renaissance Conference organizer Jared Taylor introduced Orwoll as someone who “has been promoting the idea of building explicit White communities for more than 10 years.”

Likewise, when Orwoll took the stage, he openly talked of developing a “Return to the Land” (RTTL) community in rural Arkansas and others like it where White children “will be raised in a pro-White environment.”

“The purpose of White identitarianism is White community,” the Return to the Land founder told a group that, my investigation for Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 revealed, included Patriot Front leaders, neo-Nazis and other white nationalists.

He continued, “It is to secure our ability to have White communities. We like White people. Where do White people come from? They come from breeding populations. That means you have White communities.”

Watch that excerpt from Orwoll’s American Renaissance speech below:

Now, in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Orwoll, his associate Peter Csere and a third man who lives with them in the Ozarks have sued Britain’s Sky News for defamation, civil conspiracy and other related claims for a 2025 documentary, “Inside 'Return to the Land': The group making a whites-only community in Arkansas.”

The complaint, which also names parent company Comcast and journalist Tom Cheshire, accuses the team of producing “a hit piece containing fabricated evidence” that was used to “trigger government investigations,” causing the plaintiffs to face “hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, severe reputational harm, and ongoing emotional distress.”

Oddly, the lawsuit faults the journalists for—get this—creating the “false impression that Plaintiff Orwoll affirmed the community was ‘whites only.’”

And if the allegations don’t quite make sense to you, you’re not alone.

This attack on the media is coming from a man who has openly aligned himself with Patriot Front, a group that wants to turn America into a White ethnostate.

As you will see later, Orwoll and Csere say this is all part of a “scorched-earth” strategy they have to go after critics whom they view as being “anti-White”—at the same time that they are boasting about having duped the media into falsely reporting about their ambitions to spread across the country.

Meanwhile, as the conference video shows, they are telling their allies that they do indeed have plans to expand.

*** Even with that, you still need to read to the bottom of this post to truly comprehend, from my perspective, how bizarre this story is! ***

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Here are the allegations

First, let me lay out the lawsuit’s five basic allegations against the documentarians—and why the lawsuit appears to have virtually no chance of accomplishing anything beyond harassment of the journalists.

• As part of the production process, Sky News created an illustration—used for online promotion and as a title slate in the video—showing a “WHITES ONLY” sign that appears to have been painted on a tree in a rural area.

“The Doctored Photo was designed to create the false and defamatory impression that Plaintiffs maintain ‘Whites Only’ signage on their land—evoking the segregation-era signs that are universally understood as symbols of illegal racial discrimination,” the complaint argues.

In fact, the documentary notes—as did my own reporting—that Orwoll and his associates believe they might have found a loophole where, if they band together as a “private membership association,” their discrimination would be legal.

The lawsuit does NOT allege that non-Whites are welcome to join the community, only that there are no “Whites Only” signs painted on trees.

• The Sky News documentary showed a Return to the Land post on X that read: “We started a Whites only community.”

So, exactly how is it unfair to quote Return to the Land in its own words?

Strangely, the complaint tries to distance that post from Orwoll and his two RTTL associates, as well as a sister company—Wisdom Woods LLC—that Orwoll has described as being part of the effort to make their discrimination legal.

“The X post was obviously intended as a tongue-in-cheek response to prior media defamation and an exercise of protected free speech,” the complaint claims.

“It was not intended to accurately describe legal practices of any specific organization or community, and no reasonable person familiar with the context would interpret it as a literal policy statement of Wisdom Woods LLC.”

Again, the lawsuit does NOT allege the tweet was fake, only that it was “tongue-in-cheek” and that the Return to the Land post cannot be directly linked to the people who operate and speak on behalf of Return to the Land.

So, what about this post?

Was it “tongue-in-cheek,” too?

• The lawsuit accuses Sky News of “misleading editing” of its interview with Eric Orwoll “in a manner that creates the false impression that Plaintiff Orwoll affirmed the community was ‘whites only.’”

I am posting that section of the complaint below just to make it absolutely clear that I am accurately reporting what seems to me to be completely inexplicable.

What about Orwoll’s own words in the video linked at the top of this essay? Or, the RTTL tweet that I highlighted above?

Or the post below, in response to another person, on Orwoll’s own X account?

I have never seen any post where Orwoll claims he’s been misunderstood about his desire for Whites-only communities across the country.

• According to the complaint, the documentary’s title and promotional material describe the community as a “fortress for the white race.”

In fact, it is not clear to me where Sky News got the quote that its website attributes to Orwoll.

Still, given his many other statements, I question whether there are any circumstances under which the quote could be considered defamatory.

• The lawsuit also accuses the Sky News reporter of contacting the Arkansas attorney general for comment on the legality of the Arkansas project “for the purpose of triggering a government investigation.”

“Multiple additional state and federal investigations have since been opened, further compounding the harm caused by Defendants’ conduct,” it continues.

In some ways, I’m not sure this allegation needs much comment.

When exploring issues of law, journalists routinely reach out to law enforcement officials to inquire about whether certain practices are legal. That’s what we do.

Here’s where this tale takes an even more bizarre twist.

You can watch my original report on Orwoll below:

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‘We want our enemies to seethe’

In a podcast video posted around the time the complaint was filed, Orwoll and Csere—sitting on an old sofa somewhere on their Arkansas land—hinted there would be more lawsuits against people whom they consider to be “anti-White.”

But, for those efforts to continue, Csere said their allies will need to keep opening their wallets to contribute to their “legal fund.”

 “We want our enemies to seethe and be, like, obsessively checking PACER every day to see who we have filed a lawsuit against,” Csere said, referring to the online system used to track federal lawsuits.

“Hopefully, this is the first of many lawsuits that RTTL is going to file against people who are anti-White. But we, you know, we obviously, we need more donations to the legal fund to, to, to keep all this going.”

Watch podcast excerpt below:

Orwoll agreed that they planned to “go on the offensive.”

“We have a lot of enemies who have made themselves now targets unwittingly of reprisal from us,” Orwoll said. “And we have our Jewish lawyer, so we’re gonna get very litigious and go scorched earth.”

That attorney, rabbi-turned-lawyer Jonathan Gross of Baltimore, faced controversy over his representation of violent January 6th defendants and his comparison of their prosecution to the Holocaust.

Even more strangely, Orwoll and Csere claimed journalists sometimes get their stories wrong—because the RTTL activists intentionally deceive them.

“Part of it occasionally we have messed with journalists,” Orwoll said.

Csere agreed, “It’s fun to mess with journalists. Again, saying stuff is not illegal.”

Watch podcast excerpt below:

As one example, they pointed to news reports based on the group’s own claims to be considering a Whites-only community near Springfield, Missouri.

“We had absolutely no plans whatsoever to do anything in Springfield,” Csere said.

“We just thought, ‘Okay, well, this is really funny. The media is really stupid and incompetent. Let's make a webpage that says there's a whole bunch of Return to the Land communities around the country and see how long it takes them to figure out that none of them exist.’”

Watch podcast excerpt below:

To top it off, Orwoll, Csere and the third man are asking the courts for $2.7 million in damages for a “cascade of harm” as a result of the Sky News report.

But, again, there’s a twist!

Go back to the video from that conference and, in it, Orwoll expresses a much different view of the Sky News documentary and other media coverage of their efforts to develop a case to test their interpretation of federal housing laws.

“Actually, it’s been a huge benefit to us,” he said, claiming his private membership association had more than tripled its ranks.

“So, there are definite benefits in standing up for what we believe.”

Watch excerpt from Orwoll’s American Renaissance speech below:

Between boasting about deceiving the media and claiming severe reputational damage for the media’s reporting, the legal strategy appears less about merit and more about just sticking it to their perceived enemies.

So, what do you make of all this?

You can review the complaint here and decide for yourself. Paid supporters can comment below.

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Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

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In-depth reporting like this is only possible because of subscribers like you. Thank you for supporting this effort! — Phil

Christian nationalism is on the ballot this week in Tennessee.

Two candidates—state Representative Monty Fritts, who wants to be Tennessee’s next governor, and Congressman Andy Ogles, who is seeking re-election to his seat in the U.S. House—have run decidedly Christian nationalist campaigns in their Republican primaries.

What happens in both of those races likely will be an indicator of the strength of the Christian nationalist wing of Tennessee’s Republican Party—an anti-democratic faction that would deny constitutional protections for those whose religious views and customs they despise.

Monty Fritts made it clear in his conversation with me, as well as many other interviews, that he would attempt to use the governor’s office to impose his conservative Christian views on others. That includes outlawing mosques and, if possible, Islam and other religions he considers to be “pagan.”

And Fritts refuses to rule out the possibility, if he gets his way, that even women who seek abortion care could face execution.

Andy Ogles, whom my investigations have proven to be a serial fabricator, has tried to salvage his political career by running to the extreme far right, portraying himself in AI-generated images and videos as an anti-Muslim Christian Crusader from the Middle Ages.

He has called for deporting all Muslims.

Below is what I will be watching when the votes are counted Thursday night.

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Monty Fritts’ surprise showing

Polling and conventional wisdom suggest Ogles might be in trouble in his quest for a third term, not because of his Christian nationalist views, but because of his reputation as Tennessee’s own George Santos.

But Fritts, a self-identified Christian nationalist, appears to have stunned the GOP political establishment in Tennessee with his underfunded, but better-than-expected showing against two much more established Republican candidates.

Fritts, who insists he has been “called by God” to run, has generated a degree of social-media enthusiasm unlike anything I have ever seen in Tennessee politics.

Watch an excerpt from my interview with Fritts below:

One poll shows the second-term legislator closing the gap with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and Congressman John Rose. In fact, in the last week, surrogates for Blackburn, who was once considered unbeatable, have turned their attention to attempting to portray Fritts as a dangerous “ideologue.”

To be clear, such Christian nationalist rhetoric is not unprecedented for Fritts, but none of Blackburn’s MAGA allies have ever felt the need to take a principled stand for the separation of church and state prior to Fritts’ surge in the polls.

Coincidence? It seems unlikely.

On Tuesday, Fritts posted a video in which he blasted the “corrupt,” “fake news” media. He also lashed out at “weak male politicians,” an apparent reference to the Blackburn supporters who have criticized him.

Then, he turned his ire on the Christians who have emailed him to express concern about his controversial views.

“I would offer you, as a Christian, you should repent,” he continued. “If you are not taking a stand for the name of Jesus, then you are compromising for idolatry.”

You can watch Monty Fritts’ video below:

In addition, as I first revealed, Fritts’ volunteer-dependent campaign has included a man who calls Jews “a malevolent force throughout history,” praises Adolf Hitler as “a great man,” and urges Black Americans to “return to Africa.”

Dane Chisholm, a Nick Fuentes follower who is also running for a county commission seat in rural Hawkins County, produced and appeared in two social-media videos for the Fritts campaign.

Read more below:

Yet, the Christian nationalist candidate refused to disavow him, and there is no evidence that it has affected Fritts’ campaign for governor.

Given Fritts’ lack of funding to compete against the tens of millions being spent in the governor’s race, it would be the equivalent of an NBA half-court buzzer-beater—or a Super Bowl Hail Mary—if he were to win the GOP nomination.

Even a loss, however, will be an indication of the strength of his Christian nationalist ideology among Republican voters.

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‘Muslims don’t belong in American society’

“As certain Christian Nationalists (emboldened by the president) grow more vocal and confident in their messaging, some high‑profile lawmakers are embracing language that most Americans would deem unacceptable. No one represents this alarming trend more than Rep. Andy Ogles….”

That quote, from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, took aim at anti-Muslim rhetoric that might have “sounded like something from an obsolete religious extremist group decades ago.”

“Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,” Ogles had posted on X.

Back in January, he posted an AI-generated video, set to music, that depicted him as a knight from the Crusades marching into battle.

“We must stand and reaffirm that this is a Christian Nation. This is a battle of good vs evil,” the caption declared.

In March, the Tennessee Republican posted a video of a xenophobic speech delivered at the New York Young Republican Club gala.

“America is a product of English Christian culture. NOT Islamic culture. NOT progressive culture,” Ogles added.

“If we don't cease to import Islam, the West falls.”

Another post read: “Paperwork doesn't magically make you American. Muslims are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.”

Americans United warned of the “dangerous ripple effects” of such language.

“If we wish to live in a country where people of all religions—and none—can live freely and equally, we must call out this rhetoric for what it is: Dangerous and un-American religious extremism,” the group argued.

But that’s not all.

Earlier this year, I reported that Ogles had boasted of his A+ “Remigration Score” from a shadowy group that I linked to a person who believes it is “necessary” to develop “something resembling” the 25-point party platform of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, although it would need to be “re-tooled for modern Western countries.”

Read more below:

Yet, none of the Tennessee Republicans who are trying to salvage Marsha Blackburn’s campaign has spoken out against Ogles on these issues. A well-funded PAC now targeting Ogles, financed by renewable energy executives, has attacked the congressman’s history of lies, not his anti-Muslim rhetoric.

If the two-term congressman goes down in defeat this week, it will primarily be because of questions about his character—not because anyone took a stand against his anti-Muslim, Christian nationalist rhetoric.

I’ll update this post Friday morning with the results of the election.

What do you think? (Paid subscribers can join the conversation below.)

Action steps you can take:

• Help this independent project grow by sharing this post and all my posts on your own social media!

• Please consider becoming a paid supporter.

• Subscribe to my YouTube page, as well as watching, liking and sharing the videos.

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Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

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Sometimes, we become so focused on sounding the alarm on the crises we face that we forget to search for the hope.

That realization, based on conversations with many of you, was what drove me to take the old concept for this project—HateComesToMainStreet.com—and open my eyes to a slightly redefined focus, ConfrontTheHate.com.

As I explained in the announcement yesterday, part of the strength of the new website name is that it’s active. It’s not just silently standing on the street corner as hate marches down Main Street; it’s about confronting that hate.

Read the announcement below:

And the slogan—Confront the Hate, Find the Hope—speaks even more loudly to my vision for this independent publication that I launched six months ago.

Yes, there are still plenty of alarms that need to be sounded. That doesn’t change.

But rather than wallowing in despair over the rise of political extremism in America, this publication is an invitation to find the hope for a better tomorrow, to examine how we can combat that hate, and to find ways to work together.

When I think of that renewed focus, I think of the courage of Melissa Alvarez, the strength of , and the wisdom of .

Let me explain.

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The courage of Melissa Alvarez

Melissa Alvarez is the exact opposite of a person who stands silently on the corner as hate marches down the street.

I first met Melissa last fall when I sat down with members of Nashville’s Jewish community to hear stories of the hate they have faced—and the story of Melissa’s courage inspired me in ways that defy easy description.

You can watch that conversation below:

Melissa was in Nashville’s downtown entertainment district in July 2024, serving as a tour guide to some girls visiting from Israel, when she encountered members of the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League spewing their antisemitic slurs.

Without going into the vile details, trust me when I say that any right-thinking person would be disgusted by the words coming from their lips, not to mention their repeated shouts of “Hitler was right!”

Yet, Melissa became even more alarmed by the number of people who seemed willing to entertain their misguided notions.

“I watched people say, ‘Well, what are you talking about? Where did you get this idea?’ And they’re able to pull them in,” she told me.

The more she listened to their hateful rhetoric, the angrier she got.

In that moment, Melissa made a decision to confront the hate.

The Nashville mother and political activist pulled out her smartphone and began challenging the neo-Nazis about their beliefs that Jews are a threat to society.

“Guys, I am 4-foot-11,” Melissa told them. “I am standing around a bunch of white men—and I’m a threat?”

As a result of this encounter, she began talking and texting for months with a GDL member from California.

“He’s just learning stuff off of the internet and being reinforced constantly,” Melissa recalled.

“So, he has these wild misconceptions about what Judaism looks like, about what Jews are. It was actually a positive conversation that came out of it.”

Melissa said the man eventually told her she was the first Jew he had ever met. In time, as their conversations continued, he decided to leave the neo-Nazi group.

Moments like that should give us hope—and more of those stories need to be told.

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The strength of Peggy Kingsbury

No one who has met Peggy Kingsbury has ever doubted that she’s a strong, determined woman who will stand tall in defense of her personal beliefs.

But that strength was certainly tested in the fall of 2023 when neo-Nazis injected themselves into a political campaign in her hometown of Franklin, Tennessee—a community described in these pages as a “Hallmark town.”

The neo-Nazis were backing MAGA candidate for mayor Gabrielle Hanson, and Peggy was trying to ensure that Hanson did not get the keys to the city.

As Peggy detailed in an essay for this publication, the neo-Nazis doxxed her, publishing her photo and home address along with the ominous declaration: “I think it’s about time that her and her kind were silenced.”

They later published a photo of the screen of Peggy’s phone that had been taken at a campaign event. Attached was the message: “This ain’t your revolution no more. We’re taking over from here. Hail Victory.”

It was followed by the twin lightning bolts of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi SS.

But here’s the hope: The effort to cow the community activist into silence failed. Peggy and her husband Paul sat down with me for an on-camera interview in which they declared they would not be intimidated.

Hopefully, others can learn from her example.

“Each time we have a chance to stand face to face with intolerance and prejudice we must hold the line,” Peggy wrote in her essay for this site.

“I have faith in what is right, and I believe love wins. The only thing standing up to hate cost me is a few social invites and some friendships I had misread.

“What a small price to pay.”

Read the full essay below:

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The wisdom of Jemar Tisby

Some of the best parts of publishing this website are the in-depth conversations in which I am privileged to engage with some of the most thoughtful people in the country, people who I believe are contributing to a better tomorrow.

Dr. Jemar Tisby is a public historian and author of the book The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance.

In my conversation with him, Jemar described hope as not a feeling, but an action:

“We’ve got to remember, there were times in our history when Black people in particular didn't have any real experience, external signs of hope.

“You think the Civil War came around in the 1860s. Well, how would an enslaved Black person in the 1830s or the 1790s have viewed their circumstances? They wouldn't have seen on the horizon any sort of conflagration like the Civil War. It would have looked like, well, this is my entire life.

“And yet, they were somehow able to come up with music and dance and have families and laugh and find joy in the world. Everything they did to push back against their own dehumanization was an act of hope.

“Similar to today, everything we do to push back against the devastation of ourselves or our neighbors, to push back against anti-democratic forces is a sign of hope.

“So, we shouldn't just be looking for hope as this buoyant feeling. We should be looking for hope as the actions that we take to resist oppression.”

Watch the interview below:

Those are three strong examples that have inspired me in this new chapter.

I hope you will join me on this journey. You can join the community of paid supporters who are helping to fund this independent voice for a better tomorrow.

Other action steps you can take:

• Share this post and all my posts on your own social media!

• Subscribe to my YouTube page, as well as watching, liking and sharing the videos.

• Send me your ideas!

We’re in this together!

Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

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Have you noticed anything different about my website in the last few days?

If you’ve been following this project for the past six months, you know I haven’t shied away from hard truths.

I’ve documented how extremist ideologies—from white supremacists and neo-Nazis to Christian nationalists and QAnon true believers—have moved off the fringes and right into our local town halls, school board meetings, and elections.

That’s the reality that first led me to launch this project under the name “Hate Comes to Main Street.” It captured the urgency of the moment and reflected the kind of investigations that have defined this stage of my career, including two George Foster Peabody Awards. It named the problem head-on.

You can read more of my personal journey here.

But language matters—and after six months of delivering this work, I’ve heard your feedback loud and clear.

In a time when there is already so much to feel heavy about, a title focused solely on the arrival of hate can feel like just another downer.

Documenting the problem isn’t enough. We need a path forward. Confronting this challenge requires that we equip people to act rather than wallow in despair.

That’s why this work is evolving.

Welcome to ConfrontTheHate.com.

Guided by a simple mission—Confront the Hate, Find the Hope—this site will continue to face tough realities head-on with clear, independent journalism, while placing a stronger focus on what matters most: finding practical ways forward together.

My goal is to continue to offer deep, reflective analysis on how extremism impacts everyday life, highlight essential reporting from around the country, and shine a spotlight on ordinary people showing extraordinary courage.

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It’s about women, too

As part of this shift, I’m also expanding my scope to explicitly cover attacks on the role of women in America and other forms of misogyny. As we’ve seen, extremist ideologies rarely exist in a vacuum—they almost always intertwine hatred based on race, gender, religion, ethnicity, and personal identity.

As I’ve previously reported, Christian nationalists who want to sideline people based on their skin color or ethnicity are also setting their sights on the role of women—for example, calling for an authoritarian leader who will one day take away the rights of their mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters to vote.

As Maya Angelou suggested, when people show us who they are, we need to believe them the first time.

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Confront the hate

While my lens is widening and my title is changing, the core reporting remains the same rigorous, uncompromising work that you’ve already seen from me:

• Exposing the Young Republican group behind a racist, antisemitic, misogynistic, Christian nationalist X account appealing to other young men.

• Revealing how white nationalist groups in America studied the race riots in Belfast for lessons on avoiding detection by law enforcement.

• Confronting a Christian nationalist candidate for governor who wants to outlaw Islam and Hinduism, and deny the morning-after pill to rape victims.

• Uncovering associations between KKK-loving figures and forces who are trying to push the Southern Baptist Convention farther to the right.

• Critiquing a 60 Minutes segment that unintentionally amplified a fascist group’s rebranding efforts.

• Challenging provably false claims by the Trump administration about its indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In this first six months, I published more than 80 individual reports—all while being fully committed to my main job for Nashville’s NewsChannel 5.

That’s how passionate I am about this mission! If you don’t know about the problem, you can’t fight it.

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Find the hope

What difference would it make if we all took time to get to know someone who looks, loves, and lives differently from us?

That question, posed by the sign outside a progressive Christian church in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood, goes to the heart of the redefined mission.

As critical as it is to confront the hate, we cannot stop there. Together, we have to look for paths forward.

That is why essays like Hate in a Hallmark Town, my recommended books, conversations with influential thinkers, and a persistent focus on community resilience will stay at the heart of this publication.

The shift to Confront the Hate, Find the Hope isn’t a retreat from hard truths.

It’s an invitation to become part of the solution—staying informed without feeling overwhelmed, seeing how national movements play out locally, and discovering real reasons for hope through stories of resilience and progress.

Below is just one example:

If you have other suggestions of stories about hope triumphing over hate, please drop them into the comments or the paid subscriber chat.

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Become part of the solution

If you’re a free subscriber, my goal remains clear: you’ll continue receiving thoughtful, reliable journalism with no ads and no algorithms.

If you believe in this project and its renewed focus, I hope you’ll consider joining me as a paid supporter. (If you are already a paid subscriber, you can increase your level of support by becoming a Founding Member. Here’s how.)

This independent project isn’t underwritten by a newsroom budget; I launched it with money out of my own pocket.

By helping to sustain work that requires research, tools, and legal protections, you become an active partner in a community committed to understanding what’s happening in our cities and towns—and finding real reasons for hope.

Other action steps you can take:

• Share this post and all my posts on your own social media!

• Subscribe to my YouTube page, as well as watching, liking and sharing the videos.

• Send me your ideas!

We’re in this together!

Confront the Hate. Find the Hope.

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Less than two months after taking a victory lap following the Southern Baptist Convention’s rightward turn, William Wolfe is headed back into controversy.

Wolfe, who leads the Center for Baptist Leadership and spearheaded efforts to push the nation’s largest Protestant denomination farther to the right during its recent annual meeting, is among the scheduled speakers for this weekend’s gathering of the right-wing True Texas Project (TTP) in Fort Worth.

The first-term Trump administration political appointee made news at a TTP event earlier this year when he expressed alarm about the skin color of people he saw at a DMV office in his home state of North Carolina.

“My boys all look like me—and I want my children to grow up in a country where they’re not minorities,” Wolfe told attendees.

The True Texas Project is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-government group and, as I documented two months ago, the group’s leaders are considered so extreme that mainstream Republicans have publicly denounced them as “antisemites and racists” and boycotted their conferences.

Among the announced topics for the “Year of the Patriot Conference”—which is scheduled to be held at Birchman Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation—are the “strategy for stopping Islam” and “the threats of Sharia law, totalitarianism & communism facing our faith, freedoms, and way of life.”

Wolfe’s topic is listed as “the church’s response to mass immigration.”

Among those joining the Southern Baptist activist are a former neo-Nazi pushing for a White ethnostate, a Christian nationalist podcaster who talks of Jews being “at odds” with American values and argues political violence is “morally justified,” and a political figure with ties to Hitler-loving Nick Fuentes.

Below are, from my perspective, the three most interesting figures I have identified from the conference:

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True Texas speaker Cyan Rose Quinn

Joining the Center for Baptist Leadership founder on the agenda for the daylong conference will be a woman, previously identified for her neo-Nazi ties, who is now pushing for “creative” ways to turn America into a White ethnostate.

Cyan Rose Quinn—whose topic is listed as “They Gotta Go Back: The Remigration Cure”—serves as spokesperson for a white nationalist group known as the White Papers Policy Institute. As I previously reported, the group’s website includes proposals for convincing Black Americans to leave the country.

“Overall, I’m definitely in favor of the secession of the non-White population back to their countries of origin,” Quinn said in one podcast I discovered.

Listen to the clip below:

Quinn and Wolfe were both part of the same True Texas Project conference back in February. (Check out my previous post for more documentation about the backgrounds of Quinn and the White Papers Policy Institute.)

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True Texas speaker C.Jay Engel

Then, there’s Tennessee-based Christian nationalist C.Jay Engel, a right-wing podcaster and social media provocateur known for controversial views in which he argues that White Protestants, with few exceptions, are the true Americans.

Engel, who has appeared at other events with William Wolfe, is scheduled to speak on the topic: “Ourselves & Our Posterity: Protecting Our Legacy.”

Engel has claimed Jews “as a collective have largely operated at odds with the Old American way of life, rooted as it is in European Christendom” and argued that “antisemitism is actually just a bogeyman.”

Earlier this year, he teamed up with a Pennsylvania man who republishes Nazi-related books to create a non-profit group—the White Civil Advocacy Project—that claims it advocates for the rights of people of his race. He has called for deporting non-White Americans of foreign ancestry like Vivek Ramaswamy.

(More on my reporting on Engel for Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 can be found here, here, and here.)

The right-wing figure recently defended the white nationalist Patriot Front, saying the group “has done nothing wrong and they seem [to] operate with discipline, integrity, patriotism, and moral clarity about their goals.”

And Engel has refused to condemn political violence—if the violence is being carried out by his slice of the political spectrum.

“I think it’s morally justified now,” he wrote in a June post on X. He added, “But it’s not prudent at all. We are not organized and we have no leader yet. So political violence is something I am currently not on board with.”

In another post, Engel laid down his principles: “For my enemies: violence is never the answer. For my friends: we must restore order at all costs.”

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True Texas speaker Chris Russo

Also joining CBL founder William Wolfe at the True Texas conference is Chris Russo, president of Texans for Strong Borders. His topic: ”the impact of legal immigration and the key laws that have gotten us to where we are.”

A 2023 Texas Tribune exposé by veteran investigative journalist Robert Downen identified Russo as “a prominent, anonymous figure in Nick Fuentes’ white supremacist movement” who operated under the username “Optics Respecter.”

Russo had been photographed in Texas with Fuentes who, the article noted, is “an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler and misogynist who has encouraged his followers to beat women.”

According to the Tribune:

“The Optics Respecter’s various social media accounts are replete with posts railing against Black people, immigrants and women. They contain slurs against LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities; claims that women should not be allowed to vote; and screeds against a multiracial society.

“The Optics Respecter account was banned from Twitter in 2022, but has remained active on Gab, a well-known haven for Fuentes’ movement and other far-right figures. Many of the posts have been in defense of Fuentes or parroted his vitriolic disdain for women, the LGBTQ+ community and non-white people.”

Russo reportedly did not respond to Downen’s “repeated requests for comment.”

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William Wolfe’s response?

You can find much more of my past reporting about Wolfe’s controversial connections here.

So, what does he say about his associations for the upcoming conference?

The Center for Baptist Leadership executive director has blocked me on X, making it difficult for me to reach him directly for comment.

I’ve sent him an email anyway. I’ll let you know if he responds.

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Though separated by the passing of a century, America in the 2020s once again finds itself wrestling with the predominant question of the 1920s:

Who is an American?

For many, the 1920s—the so-called “Roaring Twenties”—was a period when the United States shook off the gloom of the First World War.

“It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby and perhaps the greatest chronicler of this slice of American history.

But it was also an age of hate.

“We know this era for its cultural exuberance—flappers and jazz and swanky new buildings reaching into the sky,” writes journalist Timothy Egan.

“But it was also a time when millions of people took an oath to hate their fellow citizens.”

Egan’s 2023 history, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, reveals a dramatic series of events involving the rise and fall of the new KKK and…

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Christian nationalist Pastor Joel Webbon was trying hard to make nice with Patriot Front founder Thomas Rousseau—after all, both men are united in their opposition to the notion of America as a place where all races are welcomed.

Rousseau, who wants to turn the United States into a White ethnostate, refused to concede that one of Webbon’s favorite Black people, ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, would not have to “go back.”

The best Webbon could get out of Rousseau is that the Black, American-born Supreme Court justice “would be at the very end of the line” for deportation.

Still, the Reformed Baptist pastor from the Austin area assured Rousseau that he found his position on Clarence Thomas “understandable.”

“ Now, your position, I disagree with it, but I don’t find it to be obscene,” Webbon continued.

“I just want you to know when I hear you say, ‘Uh, Joel, I’m trying to be consistent and so I cannot say that a Black is an American’ … I hope you know this, like, I d…

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Perhaps no detail is more important to understanding Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement than the religious component: it is overwhelmingly White and evangelical.

Which is why the MAGA president awkwardly attempts to invoke a Christian faith that, to many, often comes across as less than authentic.

Who can forget Trump being asked to name his favorite Bible verses?

“I wouldn’t want to get into it. Because to me, that’s very personal,” he said. “The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.”

Trump—who, as CNN noted, once referred to communion as “my little wine and my little cracker,” —was asked if he prefers the New or Old Testaments.

“Probably equal. I think it’s just incredible,” he said.

Last year, the , a progressive Disciples of Christ pastor from San Diego, decided he needed to call out how traditional MAGA politics fails the test when compared to the teachings of Jesus.

Here’s part of what he told me in the attached video about his viral “MAGA vs. Jesus” video series:

“I’ve been pretty critical of MAGA since Donald Trump first ran for office, and it was something that I’ve spoken about openly from the pulpit and in writing and and all of that for for many years.

“But one thing that is different for me than during Trump’s first term is that I now have a larger social media following, and I continued to hear Christian nationalists, MAGA Christians, use the Bible in ways that were just not compatible with with Jesus’ message—like, the things they were advocating for just were clearly antithetical to Jesus.

“And I thought, you know, a pretty clear way to show that is to just say something that MAGA has said and then show something that Jesus said—and show how those are kind of incompatible….

“And I think one of the reasons that that was so successful is just that it shows in a very clear, short visual way how what people I think know to be true, a lot of people know to be true, about how MAGA is inconsistent with with Christianity. It articulates that in an easy to digest way.”

In this conversation, Dr. Lines explains why he does not believe that Christians can legitimately use the Bible to condemn abortion nor same-gender relations.

Please watch, then tell me what you think in the comments below.

First, there was the leak of the Telegram chats of national Young Republican figures who “referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers.”

One person famously declared, “I love Hitler.”

More recently, there was a blowup inside Tennessee’s Maury County Republican Party over what was viewed as an antisemitic mailer sent out by a 32-year-old man as part of his effort to build up a local Young Republicans chapter.

Now, Hate Comes to Main Street can link a racist, antisemitic, misogynistic, Christian nationalist X account to another group of Young Republicans—in this case, far-right men associated with a Knox County chapter in East Tennessee.

That X account—calling itself the Tennessee Heritage Association—routinely pushes the…

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