It’s hard to go anywhere without meeting someone in the God business.
Nashville and its surrounding suburbs, also referred to as Middle Tennessee, is headquarters to Thomas Nelson and Lifeway, two of the nation’s largest Christian publishers. The Educational Media Foundation, the nonprofit that runs K-LOVE Christian radio stations, moved to Franklin in 2021. Ramsey Solutions, the company owned by Christian finance guru Dave Ramsey, is one of Williamson County’s largest employers. Capitol Christian Music is based in suburban Brentwood, as is the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. A number of United Methodist national agencies are based in Nashville, along with the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Williamson County has some of the state’s largest and most influential churches, including the Church of the City; Brentwood Baptist; Grace Chapel, whose members include Gov. Bill Lee; and Christ Presbyterian Church, where U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is a member.
About two-thirds of the county’s residents identify as white Christians — including a third who are evangelicals, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute. By contrast, fewer than half of Americans (41%) identify as white Christians.
Williamson is also home to influential Christian activists such as attorney and radio host Jay Sekulow, founder of the ACLJ, who may be best known in recent years for defending Donald Trump during his 2020 impeachment. Long known for defending religious liberty, the ACLJ has turned more partisan in recent years, especially in its fundraising, warning Christians that their way of life is under attack.
“There’s a massive storm brewing, and our deadline is looming,” read a recent fundraising appeal signed by Sekulow. “I’m gravely concerned that Christians aren’t ready. President Biden is emboldening anti-Christian forces to strip away your religious liberty.”
Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a pro-Israel evangelical group, is also based in Williamson County. Along with promoting ties to Israel, the group’s founder, Laurie Cardoza Moore, was a vocal opponent of a mosque in nearby Murfreesboro — about 30 miles to the west of Franklin — and a critic of what she saw as “anti-Semitic, anti-American, anti-Judeo-Christian” books in public schools. Her activism led to Moore being appointed to a statewide textbook review board.
There’s so much overlap between God, big business, entertainment and politics that the area’s culture has earned a few nicknames. David Dark, an author and professor at Belmont University, one of the area’s three major Christian colleges, called that nexus the “Prayer Trade.”
Phil Vischer, the co-creator of “VeggieTales” and a co-host of the popular “Holy Post” podcast, calls it “Christian Nashville-ism” — a Southern and distinctly evangelical version of Christian nationalism.
McCall, a lifelong Tennessean, said Williamson County has always been conservative — and religion has always played an outsized role — but it’s more intense now. She pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of Trump — as well as an influx of evangelical Christian groups and conservative influencers such as Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire to Nashville.
These newcomers, including Hanson, left other states seeking refuge in Tennessee and claiming Nashville and its suburbs belong to “white Christian patriots” like them, said McCall.
And, while much of their God and country rhetoric sounds like what is sometimes called “Cracker Barrel Christianity,” what sets Christian nationalism apart from more aspirational forms of religious patriotism is its focus on outside enemies.
