Pastor Compares Nashville Shooter’s Trans Identity To Jesus’ Crucifixion

A Lutheran pastor appeared to compare Jesus’ crucifixion with the transgender Nashville school shooter in a sermon delivered just days after the attack.

Pastor Micah Louwagie, who leads the St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Fargo, North Dakota, delivered a sermon on Palm Sunday discussing Jesus’ crucifixion and how it was “baffling” that “someone’s existence can be so threatening” that they should be killed. Louwagie then claimed that those who point to 28-year-old Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale’s transgender identity as a potential motive for the shooting are calling for the “eradication of trans folks” just like those who called for Jesus’ death.

“The chief priests and the whole counsel were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, those leaders were looking for any excuse, valid or not, to crucify Jesus,” Louwagie said. “They would kill the one whose reputation as a teacher and healer and whose mission of love and dignity was so very threatening to their own reputation that they needed to kill him in order to preserve their own good image. 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.”

Louwagie later went on to criticize the lack of focus on “gun violence” and that “six people were dead.” The pastor said that the desire to cause “harm” to certain communities “has happened before,” citing the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps during World War II, racial segregation and “migrants being held in cages.”

“Jesus did not die for this,” Louwagie said. “Jesus did not die so violence could be perpetuated in God’s name, Jesus did not die for access to guns. God incarnate did not die on that cross so that people could value money, power, and the preservation of their own image over the bodies and lives of people. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s what Jesus died to free us from, so why are we still not free?”

Hale, who used male pronouns and occasionally went by the name Aiden, attacked Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 23, killing three children and three adults, according to police, who also confirmed that Hale’s transgender identity played a role in the shooting. Police are also investigating whether the school’s Christian affiliation was a potential motive, but the police have not disclosed whether Hale’s writings and manifesto will be released to the public after the investigation.

Media outlets have been restricting mentions of Hale’s transgender identity in their coverage of the shooting. CBS News reportedly sent a memo to staff telling them to not use the term transgender when referring to Hale and CNN also removed the word woman from one of their articles covering the shooting.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org