It was impressive to have gathered more than 1,000 Americans for a non-partisan political speech on a Thursday evening. Nor was I the only one to notice just how white the crowd was.
The winding lines outside the church reminded me of the TSA; once inside, the metal detectors and pat-downs had me wondering if I’d taken a wrong turn and wound up at the airport. It’s not every day that security is required at church, but it’s also not every day that a prominent and controversial nationalist politician crosses the Atlantic to speak before a throng of American supporters.
Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders did just that this past Thursday at the Cornerstone Church in Nashville. There he delivered an ominously titled speech, “A Warning to America,” to a lily-white audience that must have exceeded one thousand; there were only a few dozen empty seats in this sprawling megachurch.
The event was organized by the newly formed Tennessee Freedom Coalition (TFC) a Tea Party-style, grassroots organization with broadly conservative goals. The group is not explicitly racial, though according to the issues page on its website, it does seek to “promote cultural cohesion by opposing illegal immigration,” which is a first step towards opposing non-Western immigration.