Guns, God — and Blockchain: Christian nationalists build techno-theocracy in Appalachia

A group of Christian nationalist venture capitalists are constructing a "techno-libertarian" theocratic community in Tennessee, reported Mother Jones on Tuesday — in perhaps the latest sign of a new breed of right-wing politics establishing a physical presence where before it had mostly been confined to online and talk radio.

The establishment of right-wing Christian nationalist communities is far from a new phenomenon — in 2021, a fringe gun-worshiping church known as the Rod of Iron Ministries purchased a compound in Texas in preparation for a war with the government.

This new project near Gainesboro, Tennessee, is backed by the theocratic venture capital firm New Founding.

And it's unusual.

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"The Highland Rim Project is not just another old-fashioned utopian fantasy," wrote Kiera Butler. "Rather, it is deliberately forward-looking, infused with Silicon Valley techno-libertarian values. The communities will be designed around 'digital self-governance' including cryptocurrency and a culture 'in which our patrimonial civic rights, chiefly those of property, free political speech and civilian armament, can be maintained and perpetuated.'"

Among those involved in the project are Andrew Isker, a podcasting pastor from Minnesota who is moving his family of six because, in his own words, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is putting his family at risk: “[Schools] could be putting [my son] in a dress and calling him a girl name, and I would have no idea. And then when I find out and I oppose it, boom. [Child Protective Services] comes, takes him out of our custody, and he’s gone forever.”

There is no evidence that this has happened or will likely happen.

According to the report, Isker and his compatriots see their project as the creation of a new kind of state altogether.

"There’s a name for the rough concept that Isker describes: the 'Network State,' an ascendant and buzzy tech movement where internet groups are beginning to explore what it might be like to start their own new countries," said the report. "At first, these new countries would appear online, and eventually in actual physical locations. Simply put, the Highland Rim Project is the Christian nationalist take on that idea. As New Founding CEO Nate Fischer put it last year on X, 'Nation states are not the principal form of government today. I see no reason Christian nations or peoples couldn’t organize network states.'"

President Donald Trump, for his part, hasn't publicly endorsed these projects but has put lots of effort into boosting crypto technology and reversing recent federal attempts to regulate it following the industry's support for him in the 2024 election; he is reportedly now telling prosecutors to back off investigating crypto scams.