How far should Christians go to preserve a cultural tradition they deem valuable? For a small community in the Ozarks, establishing an exclusively white settlement is their chosen means of preserving European cultural heritage.
The settlement’s leader was recently favorably interviewed by a rising New Right Christian influencer, Austin, Texas minister Joel Webbon on July 28. Racialist views are sadly gaining acceptance in some New Right Christian circles.
Return to the Land (RTTL) is a project seeking to establish “intentional communities” that preserve people of European ancestry. As a private membership association, RTTL requires members to apply online before moving into lands owned by the parent organization. Applicants may be denied access if they are not white, do not practice a traditional European religion, or affirm LGBTQ practices. The majority of people staying in RTTL’s first community identify as Christian.
Eric Orwoll—who prefers the Norwegian version of his surname, Aarvoll, when online—founded RTTL. The movement’s first official community occupies 160 acres in rural northern Arkansas, an area Aarvoll claimed was already 95 percent white.
In the recent interview on Right Response Ministry’s YouTube channel, Aarvoll defended his movement. Interviewer Webbon, who serves as Covenant Bible Church Senior Pastor in Austin, is the President and Founder of Right Response Ministries.
“European-descended people in the United States are being threatened with the loss of our rights, we are legally discriminated against in employment and, until recently, admissions in university,” Aarvoll argued.
The RTTL founder insisted that he values the rights of other ethnicities, even while establishing a community that excludes them. Aarvoll clarified that ethnically exclusive settlements should be available to all.
“I think everyone deserves that dignity, I think other groups in the U.S. are doing the same thing also. There are Jewish communities, Black communities, you name it. It’s just when Whites do it, all of a sudden, it’s a huge issue,” Aarvoll stated.
Aarvoll believes most Americans recognize the legal right of RTTL to pick and choose its members, even if that enables “voluntary segregation.” Aarvoll considers unfriendly media coverage to be counterproductive to his opponents’ goals. “They’re really kind of pressing at a sore spot in the public consciousness where people now just lately are aware of the anti-white bias in the media and institutions,” Aarvoll explained.
On his X profile, Aarvoll delved into his motivations for starting RTTL. He emphasized the need for those of European descent to defend their people and invest in their race instead of in the mainstream economic system. Aarvoll critiqued the banking establishment for being a “small international clique” impenetrable to upward mobility.
As an alternative, RTTL proposes a community with radically pooled resources, labor and business ventures. Aarvoll considered financial support for RTTL as investments rather than donations. The RTTL website encourages supporters to give to their legal fund or their “Family Incentives Fund.”
Aarvoll also voiced support for organizations such as the Patriot Front and American Renaissance.
In declassified FBI documents from April 2020, Patriot Front is described as an organization that “advocates for an ethnically white America, and they believe that other races of people are taking it from the cultural heritage.” The FBI documents also explained that the Patriot Front spawned after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
On the other hand, American Renaissance is an online magazine that describes its position as “race realism.” The Virginia-based publication’s “About Us” page explains, “We seek no advantages as whites—only the expression of preferences for our own people and culture that are taken for granted by people of other races but denied to us.”
While Aarvoll sets a distinct tone from stereotypical white nationalist groups, his video on X suggested that the prospect of a benevolent American dictator could get people excited.
“You’re going to get Hitler 2.0 when you deserve him. He’s not just going to show up to a people that aren’t putting in the work themselves. We have to put in that work. If you want victory, you have to deserve it,” Aarvoll stated.
The official RTTL Substack denies affiliation with alt-right groups or with Nazism.
Throughout his promotional video for RTTL, Aarvoll referenced God, saying that “God rewards those who take action.” In his interview with Right Response Ministries, Aarvoll explained that he was formerly a devout Catholic, but had shifted away from Rome while remaining a Christian.
RTTL tries to harness grievances among some white Americans who profess Christianity. Hopefully its appeal will be limited and more responsible Christian leaders will point to a better, more Gospel-focused way.
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Comment by John on August 1, 2025 at 3:52 pm
So a bunch of white supremacists started a cult – sorry, organization – that calls itself Return to the Land? They must either a lot of laughs or well-deserved punches when they try to explain themselves to Native Americans.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 2, 2025 at 12:20 am
“I think other groups in the U.S. are doing the same thing also. There are Jewish communities, Black communities, you name it. It’s just when Whites do it, all of a sudden, it’s a huge issue,”
Exactly!!!
Comment by Gary Bebop on August 2, 2025 at 1:29 pm
And there are the Mormons and the Amish . . .
The rise of niche communities is not a historical anomaly.
Comment by John on August 2, 2025 at 4:39 pm
Glenn Wheeler,
Maybe because the African Americans and Jews aren’t expressing admiration for genocidal manaics casually on Twitter.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 2, 2025 at 4:54 pm
It’s not just this article, I’ve noticed it before, but I see a leftward bent slowly creeping into the articles on this site.
But that’s the way it always is. It starts slowly, almost imperceptibly, just a drop at a time. It’s so slow that most people not only don’t notice it, they slowly become accustomed to it.
And then, before you know it, the transformation is complete, and people wonder, “How did this happen?”
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 2, 2025 at 5:37 pm
John,
The Israelis, with the assistance of the United States, are committing genicide now.
As an American, you have no room to criticize genocidal maniacs. Just as the people of countless nations who have been the victims of American bombs.
But of course, the people your government slaughters don’t matter. “That’s different! Don’t you see? That’s different!”
Sure it is…..
Comment by Gary Bebop on August 2, 2025 at 5:58 pm
The IRD and The John Wesley Institute are integrated theologically. That means they share trajectories, aims, and funding. This grounds them in historic Wesleyan-holiness understandings and sensibilities. There are clear boundaries. Go to The John Wesley Institute and look at the gallery of leaders. You will recognize warriors, the intellectual and spiritual guardians of convictional holiness, not a claque of cronies acting out a charade.
Comment by John on August 2, 2025 at 8:03 pm
Glenn Walker,
I think we’re getting off-topic here but just to be clear I’ve never been shy about criticizing these actions of the American military abroad, especially in the Middle East where so much evil has been done. But I think it’s a deliberate bait-and-switch when someone praises Adolf Hitler online and gets called out on it to respond with, “Well, your country’s not blameless.” As to a leftward switch in the IRD I think you’re wrong here. I’ve been reading the IRD’s articles for over a decade and I believe the IRD of 10 or 15 years ago would be just as critical of these white nationalist communities, perhaps even more so back then. So would have the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and most other established conservative media sites 10 or 15 years ago. I think the IRD has pretty much stayed where it is for the last 15 years, but rather its the larger pendulum of American politics itself that has shifted to where what was once considered far-right is now able to pose as just plain rightwing.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 2, 2025 at 10:01 pm
John,
Nobody’s talking about being not blameless. And it’s not off-topic. You can’t be a citizen of a country that has treated the rest of the world as a colony and that has caused the deaths of untold numbers of people throughout the world by its remote controlled bombs and that is the financial and military muscle behind a murderous apartheid state in the Middle East and then at the same time criticize and ridicule a small group of people who have a tract of land and simply want to live on that land the way they choose.
Who are they killing? Who have they killed?
Compare that to the number of Gazans the Israelis slughtered today, with weapons the United States supplied and financed, that were lining up for food.
My god!!!
Comment by John on August 2, 2025 at 11:44 pm
Glenn Wheeler,
Where are you from?
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 3, 2025 at 12:08 am
John,
Don’t worry about where I’m from. Wherever I’m from won’t assuage your guilt and hypocrisy.
Comment by Corvus Corax on August 4, 2025 at 10:57 am
In general, intentional communities are a bad idea. However, people are going to be drawn to them because organic communities are under increasing strain in our globalized, atomized, hyper-consumerist and hyper-individualistic anti-culture.
People crave identity, meaning, and belonging. Shaming these people as dangerous right wing fanatics (I’m sure they are) is not going to extinguish this fundamental human desire.
Comment by Wilson R. on August 5, 2025 at 11:30 am
It is one thing–and a separate discussion–if a group of people want to segregate themselves based on race. But just as a response to some of the posters above who have argued there is precedent for such communities: Mormons, Amish, and Jews are not racial categories. They separate based on religious identity. Black communities arose after the Civil War in places like Oklahoma and Kansas for a very simple reason: These were people who had lived under White control, with no legal rights, and who had ample reason to believe that the only way they could make a future for themselves was through a community in which they were not subject to White rule.
When you segregate in the name of Christianity, as this Ozark community is doing, you are violating a fundamental tenet of Biblical Christianity. As Paul insisted over and over, the old cultural categories of Jew/Greek, slave/free, male/female (and, by extension, Black/White/Brown) are no longer operative, because Christ is in all and through all. Christ transcends culture and nationality; therefore, to cut off other groups from a Christian community based on race and cultural background is to deny the basis for Paul’s claim that one part of the body cannot say to another, “I don’t need you.”
In fact, the gospel is always countercultural to human-constructed cultures, because human cultures inevitably organize around classifications and identities that separate people, based on race, gender, income, education, whatever. The gospel invites people into a new culture, a God-constructed culture in which traditional human distinctions lose all meaning.
Of course, Christians have long sung, “In Christ, there is no East or West” without really meaning it. But the ideal of “one great fellowship of love, throughout the whole wide Earth” remains a pole star for Christians. And that puts people like Joel Webbon in clear opposition to the gospel. He is a blind guide who leads people into the ditch.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 5, 2025 at 11:40 pm
Wilson,
How fortunate we are to have you who, in this age of apostasy, are the only one who knows exactly what the True Gospel is! Thank you for enlightening us! Your wisdom and understanding are truly exceptional.
Comment by Wilson R. on August 6, 2025 at 10:24 am
You don’t have to be a gospel genius to figure out that racial segregation is anti-gospel. You just have to be able to read.
Comment by Mark on August 6, 2025 at 10:14 pm
You know Mr. Wheeler, your attempts to smuggle in white nationalism under a thin cloak of postmodern jibber jabber and criticism of Israel are rather transparent and clique.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 6, 2025 at 10:33 pm
Yea, Mark, if it were anything other than “white” nationalism, would you be criticizing it???
I thought not…
The hypocrisy here is nauseating.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 7, 2025 at 12:26 am
As another example of the hypocrisy, Mark, you obviously have no problem with Israeli nationalism.
Comment by Mark on August 7, 2025 at 10:39 am
Glenn Wheeler,
And there it is again. The relentless ad hominem attacks, the constant waving of an Israeli red herring in our faces. All to try to silence the conversation while avoiding showing your real hand. But we know what you’re doing. You want to defend these white nationalists who are twisting Christianity to fit their agenda, but you don’t want look like you’re defending them. So instead of offering a straight-up position on the topic at-hand you try to redirect attention somewhere else and attack anyone who calls you on it until they go silent. You appeal to the skepticism and nihilism of our age even as you’re pretended to condemn it. It’s all just a bag of fallacies. Well, I’m going to rob of your bag of tricks and ask you something straight up. Do you believe what RTTL is doing is Christian? Forget about Israel. Forget other groups out there. Forget about all the other apostasies out in the world today. No more fallacies. No more misdirection. It’s just you and this white nationalist group now. Yay or nay?
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 8, 2025 at 10:55 pm
Mark,
When Jesus was asked by what power He did what He did, He responded with a question about John the Baptizer.
So I will ask you….Do you believe what dispensationalism says about the state of Israel? Do you agree that Evangelical support of Israel is Christian? Do you believe that what Israel is doing is Christian?
Neither will I tell you what I think.
Comment by Mark on August 9, 2025 at 9:22 pm
LOL!!!
That’s really all you’ve got isn’t it? Not only can’t you stop talking about Israel for a second, but now you’re comparing yourself to Jesus? Oh the ego! What are you so afraid of? I’ll tell you whatever you want to know about my thoughts on Israel, the Gaza War, and plight of Palestinians, etc. But I’ll need you to answer my question first. Considering you’re obsessive tendency to deflect and hide in the corner, you can’t blame for not showing my cards first. So what do you say? I’ll show you mine after you show me yours.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 9, 2025 at 11:47 pm
Mark,
Far from comparing myself to Jesus, I simply followed His example when responding to satanic forces opposing Him. And, quite as expected, you responded to me the exact same way the satanic forces opposed to Jesus responded to Him.
Textbook example!
Comment by Mark on August 10, 2025 at 12:19 am
So now I’m satanic? Thanks for clearing that up. You do have a flare for the dramatic, I’ll give you that, but ad hominem attacks aren’t going to scare me away. Still waiting for answer to my question, if you’re done firing blanks.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on August 10, 2025 at 10:55 pm
Mark,
The fact remains that when confronted with a situation, you responded exactly the way the enemies of Jesus responded. You used their playbook and continue to use their playbook. What you do with that is up to you, but it should make you wonder which side you have been manipulated to take.
See if you can find out where these quotes come from…”You are of your father the devil.” “This is your hour, and the hour of darkness .”
Finis.
Comment by Mark on August 11, 2025 at 8:53 am
All I asked for was an honest and straight-forward answer to a question. Clearly you’re someone who’s quick to judge and call out others on the basis of a single statement or comment, but who is careful never to reveal much about themselves or their own real beliefs for fear of having the same judgement passed on them. That’s not being Christ-like Glenn. I forgive you, but I hope you’ll find a better way.