On March 27, 2023, Audrey Hale, a young woman who identified as a man, entered a Christian school in Nashville and killed six people, three of whom are children. Fourteen minutes after the shooting began, Hale was confronted by local law enforcement officers who ran to the sound of the guns and ended the ongoing threat. Audrey Hale has stepped out of this life and is receiving the just wrath of God for her evil deeds.
The investigation is ongoing and motives have been hinted at but not yet confirmed. The police Chief has stated that Hale was a former student of the school and may have had resentment over being made to attend there. We know that Hale intentionally planned this attack and had a manifesto. Until the investigation is complete and all the details released, much of what will be discussed in the coming days will, for now, be speculative, even if ultimately proven correct.
What is interesting, of course, is the response of politicians and the media. They have immediately been discussing the need for drastic gun control laws. Like a moth to the flame, this is the reaction we must expect. Yet, what will not be discussed is Hale herself. What will be avoided is Hale’s mental state and the profession of a gender status that does not comport with her biological state.
In fact, it is quite likely that this story will quietly disappear soon because any discussion of the shooting must include the shooter. And mainstream voices do not want to amplify Hale’s transgender claims. Yet, we must consider Hale. What were her motivations? What drove her to such hatred and violence? And what connection might it have to her professed identity? These are necessary questions but questions most in the media and political spheres will not touch for all the money in the world
Most of these mainstream voices utterly eschew violence of any kind, unless it happens to occur within the camp of those believed to have been unjustly oppressed by society. Consider the BLM and Antifa riots of just a few years ago (and continuing into recent history). Many political and media voices applauded these violent and destructive rages as “mostly peaceful” protests. And, when pressed on the destructive path these protests took, many decried such objections by claiming protests did not have to be polite or peaceful. They likewise scolded such questioners, reminding them that these persons had been oppressed all their lives and their anger was not only natural but justifiable.
Politicians, celebrities, and media personalities have even applauded and encouraged the pursuit and harassment of persons holding to conservative political views. Just a few years ago, Congresswoman Maxine Waters encouraged her constituents to pursue such persons when seen in the public sphere, like eating at a restaurant, and openly protest and harass these people, letting them know they are not welcome. A sitting Congresswoman openly advocated public harassment in order to chase conservatives out of public view.
Likewise, we have seen ongoing protests at various public universities where students not only attempted to prevent a conservative speaker to appear but sought to disrupt and agitate the gathering. Repeatedly, these students were applauded by the media, politicians, and school administrators for their behavior. They have been continuously inculcated in the mantra that “words are violence” and that those conservative speakers engender hatred, misogyny, bigotry, racism, and anti-trans hate. Their behavior is encouraged by elitists and leftists who claim that any opposition to the approved narrative cannot be tolerated. That intolerance of such persons is a virtue and there are no rules on how to shut down their unapproved speech.
This morning, Fox News ran an article about a Wayne State University professor who has been suspended for writing a social media post calling for the murder of conservative speakers rather than mere protest. The professor wrote that protesting against conservative speakers legitimizes their position and gives the media reason to denigrate protestors. Therefore, he advocated for the assassination of such conservative-minded speakers on the basis that their speech is bigoted and oppressive. Understand this, he advocated for violence to end the opposition to leftist ideology.
Following the shooting in Nashville, and the revelation that Hale professed to be transgender, some persons have lamented, not that she murdered children, but that transgender persons would become victims of the right. One such publicly transgender person tweeted that all transgender persons should flee Tennessee because they would be persecuted and “exterminated.” Others have (echoes of BLM and Antifa here) lamented the shooting on one side while simultaneously claiming the shooting happened because of laws as the one passed in Tennessee which bans the use of medication and surgeries (read that as poison and mutilation) on minors under the poorly named label of “gender-affirming care.” Such laws have been decried as bringing about an actual “genocide” within the transgender community. In other words, the victims are not the children and adults killed in cold blood by Hale but rather the transgender community.
Coming back to the horrendous crime committed by Hale, it is not hard to see that our society has sanitized and blessed violent rhetoric and behavior if that violence is directed at the right people. Can Hale’s actions be tied directly to this culturally approved call for violence? That will remain to be seen. Yet, we cannot deny that many such acts of violence receive a pass and a kind of tacit approval. Why? Because violence and intimidation have long been the tool of totalitarian tyrants to bring a people to heel. And those that perpetrate the violence are useful until the tyrants achieve their goals. Hale’s actions are pure evil and that evil continues to be approved of and encouraged in certain circles.
Ultimately, this ties back to the true reason for all vile acts in our society, sin. We drink sin in like water and celebrate it like it is the highest of virtues. We rebel against God in every possible way and encourage others to do likewise. And anything that attempts to disrupt our full embrace and celebration of sin must be shouted down or destroyed. Why was a Christian school attacked? Because it is a soft target is clear from the Police Department’s new conference. But, also, because a Christian school is a representation of God’s will on earth. It matters not how much they believed the Bible or what it taught. As long as it was Christian and bore any resemblance to Christ is enough for it to be hated and for the desire to destroy those in it to bloom.
Sinners hate God with a vengeance. It was sinners who put God the Son on the cross at Calvary. They cannot kill Him again, so they will seek to shut down or destroy those who proclaim to be His followers. While there can and should be much debate over the cultural celebration of sin (and the violent rhetoric so often approved of), the most we can hope to accomplish is the minimization of the impact of such recurring violence. The only true antidote to such vile sin is the gospel itself. We must continue to bring the good news that Christ forgives sinners who repent and turn to Him. That sinners can be freed from the shackles of sin and death. Only then will sinners who harbor such hate come to love Christ and His commandments. And that must be the single most important thing we take from this horrendous crime. Audrey Hale needed Christ. And there are thousands, even millions more, Audrey Hales who need to hear of Christ as well. Let us be busy proclaiming the gospel to them.
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