A Presbyterian minister condemned the Biden administration’s refusal to denounce the Nashville school shooting as a “religious hate crime against Christians.”
Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, said in a statement Thursday that President Joe Biden and his administration’s failure to declare the shooting at the Covenant Christian school a hate crime against Christians “is deeply troubling and concerning.”
Violence against people because of their religious beliefs must ALWAYS be condemned. Tragically, the Biden Administration has REFUSED to call the horrific shooting at The Covenant School a HATE crime. No one should be murdered because of what they believe. #TheCovenantSchool pic.twitter.com/ksbbZAdxWQ
— Rev. Patrick Mahoney (@revmahoney) March 30, 2023
Audrey Hale stormed into the Covenant School Monday and killed three nine-year-old children and three adults before she was shot and killed by police.
While police initially described Hale as a teenager and then as a 28-year-old woman, it was later revealed that Hale was transgender.
“In America violence against people of faith and places of worship is a hateful act that always must be condemned by our national leaders,” Mahoney said. “This certainly includes Christians.”
The Christian leader continued:
It is hard to believe six people, including three children, were murdered in America because of their Christian faith and President Biden has refused to address this troubling reality. The Biden Administration’s shocking silence on refusing to confront these shootings as a religious hate crime will only pave the way for more violence against the Christian community in the future.
Join me as I pray for peace and protection at the United States Supreme Court today for the “Trans Day Of Vengeance” on Saturday, April 1st. #PrayForPeace #RejectViolence #BlessedAreThePeacemakers #LoveYourNeighbor pic.twitter.com/LmG5TaEPyR
— Rev. Patrick Mahoney (@revmahoney) March 30, 2023
“Compare this with President Biden’s powerful comments regarding gun violence against America’s Jewish community, when he said, ‘I will not allow our fellow Americans to be intimidated or attacked because of who they are or the faith they practice,’” Mahoney observed. “We call upon President Biden to show that same commitment toward protecting the Christian community and ensuring religious freedom for all.”
Mahoney’s words come two days after Bill Donohue, who heads the Catholic League, called for the Nashville shooting to be “investigated as a hate crime against Christians.”
“The shooter, Audrey Hale, is a female who misidentified herself as a male,” wrote Donohue, president of the Catholic civil rights organization. “Her resentment against The Covenant School, a Christian school, is important given that Christianity teaches we are either male or female.”
The Nashville mass shooting, which resulted in the killing of three children and three adults, needs to be investigated as a hate crime against Christians.https://t.co/noYZEIe8c8 pic.twitter.com/figNguB0vv
— Catholic League (@CatholicLeague) March 28, 2023
Donohue added:
In all likelihood, this is the source of her resentment. After all, she targeted this school—she did not go on a rampage in a local public school. To top things off, her mother works at a local church and frequently posts about religion on social media.
“Transgender young people have emotional and mental disorders,” Donohue pointed out. “They need help. They are also being taught to hate everyone not like them,” referring to the groupthink of LGBTQ activists who ridicule and disparage non-transgender individuals as well as parents who reject gender transition medical interventions for their children and teens.
“When you add these conditions to the resentment that the Nashville shooter exhibited towards her Christian school, you have a recipe for disaster,” he observed. “We cannot allow a biased media to spin this story any other way. We need a probe to determine whether this was a hate crime.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Joe Biden” by Joe Biden. Background Photo “The Covenant School Shooting” by Metro Nashville Police Department.