A pastor in Fargo, North Dakota, compared the Christian school shooter who killed three adults and three children last month in Nashville to the persecution of Jesus.
Audrey Hale died minutes after killing three adults and three children, gunned down by responding officers. Hale, 28, previously attended The Covenant School.
According to reports, Hale planned the attack over months. Officers found hand-drawn maps by Hale depicting entry points and surveillance systems. Hale had detailed writings plotting different attacks and studied other mass murderers.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told NBC News anchor Lester Holt that the shooter may have harbored some resentment for having to go to school there.
During a sermon on April 2, six days after the shooting, Pastor Micah Louwagie likened the treatment of transgender persons to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Louwagie criticized those who focused on the shooter's gender identity, saying their focus on the shooter ignores “the number one cause of child death in this country” — “gunshot wounds.” (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Shares Straight to the Point Message With ‘Professional Christian Leaders')
Louwagie drew a comparison between the Pharisees' treatment of Jesus and lawmakers who've made drag shows and women's sports the culture war's causes du jour.
The Daily Mail further reports on the sermon, with Louwagie telling the congregation at St. Mark's Lutheran Church that:
‘It's baffling to me that someone's existence can be so threatening, that people decide they need to be controlled that they need to have laws made against them or even worse that the people that they find to be so threatening, should die.
‘There are a significant number of people who have deemed that the fact that the Nashville shooter happened to be a trans person, so it's been reported is just the excuse they need to call for the eradication of trans folks.
‘Rather than focusing on the fact that we have a serious gun violence problem that continues to go unaddressed, rather than focusing on the fact that six people six more people are dead, rather than focusing on the fact that those staff and children should have been safe in that school or focusing on the fact that children do not feel safe in their own schools, rather than focusing on any of this they have decided they need to cause more harm.
‘This isn't a new phenomenon it's been happening in this country for many, many years: the Holocaust, the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, segregation forcibly changing indigenous people to residential schools, migrants being held in cages, the list goes on,' they said.
No reasonable person has called for harming trans people or individuals with gender dysphoria. Nor would they excuse, justify or condone such remarks.
In contrast to Pastor Louwagie, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) addressed his state in response to the shooting and outlined a plan for having armed guards at every school. Lee put the cost for managing the necessary policies and procedures for such a policy at $140 million. He also unveiled plans to allocate millions to mental health resources in schools. (RELATED: Fetterman Opens Up About Depression, Says He Was ‘Indifferent' About Living)
READ NEXT: Steve Doocy Chastises Trump For Mentioning Judge's Daughter
130 mass shootings in this year alone? Total lie. I do know that last year in Chicago the FBI said there were 6 mass shootings in May alone. They were all done by black youth with illegal handguns. Fedral law says one must be 21 to buy a handgun and not have a police record. None of those youth were even close.
That pastor is lost in left-wacko-field. I certainly would not go to his church.
“the number one cause of child death in this country” — “gunshot wounds.”
Not even close. The #1 cause of childhood deaths in this country and in the world is from abortions. #2 is death from unintentional injuries. #3 is suicide. #4 are deaths from homicides. #5 are deaths from cancer. Those stats are from the U.S. government.
Now I realize that Pastor Louwagie may knowingly or unknowingly be confusing causes with methods, but that in fact is the point.
First off, abortion is the #1 cause by a long shot and of course abortions are not conducted using a gun. So any list he is seeing has obviously omitted abortions as a cause of childhood deaths.
Second, deaths from unintentional injuries, suicides, and homicides aren’t the same, even to the extent that guns are involved. They require separate analyses and solutions to impact those numbers. Suicides for example are a mental health issue at the core, and while different methods may have different efficacy rates, different methods are used, and those that attempt suicide unsuccessfully generally try again and again until they are ‘successful’ or have their root mental health issues addressed. Homicides are often at the hand of criminals or others who already are not allowed legally to possess a firearm. How we curtail deaths caused by these criminals is very different than deaths caused by law-abiding citizens under very different circumstances.
Third, it’s almost axiomatic that these lists ignore the lives saved by law-abiding citizens with guns. The U.S. government statistics on this are orders of magnitude higher than the lives lost.
I think this pasty-faced pastor is one of THEM. They are turning Christianity toward the Dark Side. One mainline Church is splintering over the issue of queeps of the cloth.
He may have the position of a pastor, but he has no idea of what the Bible says. He is another wolf in sheep’s clothing!!!
She
You are kidding right? This is the exact sickness we need to be aware of. Comparing a murderer to Christ is beyond comprehension. This is what drives these lunatics , rationalizing violence on the innocent.
Mental illness is rampant. But instead of institutionalizing these miscreants, leftists are coddling them. The Christian School shooting shows how dangerous these mentally ill people can be. They must be taken off the streets.
Please understand that this “preacher” is a member of the ECLA Lutheran Church. There are several different Lutheran Churches. I’m in the Missouri Synod, and there are others that are truly viable. This one is NOT. This church is as far from other Lutheran Churches as we are from Muslims–probably further. Please do not think we’re all in the same barrel because Lutheran is in our name. Martin would roll over in his grave if he knew what these people are teaching.