North American Anglican Online Journal is Underwritten by Far-Right Political Extremist
- Charles Perez
- May 22
- 3 min read
Updated: May 23
SPECIAL REPORT
By David W. Virtue, DD
May 22, 2025
THE North American Anglican Journal, (TNAA) an online forum for theological and historical discussions in the Anglican tradition for Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) clergy and laity, is apparently being underwritten at least in part by an extremist far right person who wants America to be a Christian nation while excoriating “Jews who need to apologize to the world.”
The TNAA print publisher is a C. Jay Engel (see Advent 2024 hardcopy issue) who holds extremely disturbing political views that can only be described as xenophobic, racist, antisemitic and unchristian.
He is on record arguing that Jews "have largely operated at odds with the Old American way of life." The editor-in-chief of TNAA, Jesse Nigro, is apparently aware of Mr. Engel's offensive beliefs. (Engel has made no secret of them.) Nigro appears to attend a LCMS congregation.
In a small office building purchased by developers, two men, including Engel are trying to build a Christian nationalist community in rural Jackson County, Tennessee, while attempting to build a right-wing podcasting business.
Local TV NewsChannel 5 revealed that Pastor Andrew Isker and his sidekick C.Jay Engel want to “repeal the 20th Century.” They want to go back to America as it existed before the Civil Rights movement. They want to take away the rights of women to vote. And they are prepared to accept a Protestant dictator to achieve their goals. A Protestant Franco is inevitable, he said.
In one Engel Contra Mundum podcast they argued that, "the Holocaust narrative must be turned on its head. Instead of the world apologizing to Jews for not having done enough to prevent the evils of Nazism, Jews need to apologize to the world," the headline ran.
The Contra Mundum podcast is being billed as the "Number One Christian Nationalist Podcast in the World” — also highlighted their willingness to flirt with ideas that critics call antisemitic and with characters who engage in Holocaust denial.
Engel himself has argued that "the Jews as a collective have largely operated at odds with the Old American way of life, rooted as it is in European Christendom."
In 2023, Engel faced criticism online for liking a meme featuring the words “the more you notice” and the star of David — which critics perceived as an allusion to a common antisemitic notion that one can discover the evil influence of Jews by noticing patterns of behavior by people of Jewish descent.
In another exchange, Engel posted "I don't hate the Jews," but added that he had "never even opined on that debate and the Holo" — apparently, a reference to the Holocaust.
Engel has also posted several times on X about starting an audio book company that offers recordings of the memoir of a Belgian Nazi collaborator, as well as books of a New Zealand white supremacist and Holocaust denier.
Contrary to Engel’s own posts, the podcasters insisted in their written statement that Engel does not own or operate that company — “though he did share it on behalf of a friend over a year ago as part of a broader interest in historical content.”
Engel pointed to what he called “one of the great American heroes of the 20th Century, Charles Lindbergh.” A part of the America First movement of the 1930s, the famed aviator opposed U.S. entry into Europe's war against Adolf Hitler. Lindbergh faced public backlash after he blamed Jews and what he saw as Jewish-controlled media for pushing the nation into war.
Furthermore, Engel is a major donor to David Irving, the infamous Holocaust denier. See: https://irvingbooks.com/blog/friends-of-irving-books/
Engel was described at the website as an “exceptional collaborator who enriches our literary community.” Engel also hosts @chroniclesmag Podcast which has been described as a production of Chronicles Magazine, the original outlet for paleoconservative thought and a bastion of the extreme Right in America.
You can read more here:
It appears that many TNAA contributors are unaware of Engel's support.
TNAA's editor Jesse Nigro claims: “The print journal is currently on hiatus and has never received financial support beyond regular subscription payments from readers.” VOL's readers are left to inquire whether this statement applies to TNAA platforms other than print.
END
I rarely agree with Mr. Virtue, although I'm a longtime reader to keep up with the different perspectives among current and former Anglicans, but I appreciate Mr. Virtue calling out anti-semitic extremists whether they are on the right or left. There is a popular megachurch pastor, also far-right, named Ryan Visconti in the Assemblies of God USA who publicly posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Jews should not be allowed to pray in public and that Jews, along with sin, are the root of evil because they are "high performance" people...his words.
Many comments here judge Mr Virtue to have lost his marbles. The article, though, is cogently laid out and has references to back up his statements.
Never been able to make sense of David being a traditionalist when it comes to religion and anti-populist when it comes to politics. You make a venn diagram of those two things and the only place they overlap may be a guy named David. Great way to alienate both halves of the country with one set of positions. Comments are interesting, surprised they're being left up, sure wouldn't have been in the days of Disqus. Hope David doesn't stop posting because he still comes up with dirt about the Episcopal Church you can't get anywhere else.
David Virtue's article is dead on. These are Engle's views, and it's a travesty that TNAA brought him on as editor, and now no one with any sense of decency should have anything to do with TNAA. The comments with yelping ad hominem attacks on Mr. Virtue--there's no substance to them. The defensive reflex in favor of Engle is just the elevation of political ideology over Christian ethics. Lord have mercy.
time to hang it up, David.