| | Details emerge about the Covenant School trans-identified killer and her 6 victims | | Curated for you byCP Editors | | Good afternoon. It's Tuesday, March 29, and today's headlines include ongoing details about the Nashville school shooter and her six victims, a female athlete calling for a boycott of ESPN, and Carl Lentz's return to ministry. | | Members of the Nashville, Tenn., community were still reeling in grief Tuesday as details continued to emerge about the six victims and the troubled trans-identified shooter killed in a bloody and tragic attack at The Covenant School on Monday. "Our community is heartbroken," the Covenant School, a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, said in a statement cited by CNN. "We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing." The school also expressed appreciation for the support they have received, as well as the actions of first responders "who acted quickly to protect our students, faculty and staff." | | The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified six victims who were killed in the attack. Three of the victims were 9-year-old students at the Christian elementary school: Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs. The three adults killed in the attack were identified as: Mike Hill, the school’s 61-year-old custodian; Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher; and Katherine Koonce, 60, who worked as the head of school. The shooter has been identified as Audrey Hale, 28, a woman who attended the school years ago and recently changed her sexual identity as trans and was said to have identified as a man. She was killed by police officers during the attack. This article from CP shares more about the lives of each of the victims, as well as the woman who killed them. Continue reading. | | P.S. Get rewarded for sharing our newsletters! Sign-up for the CP referral program—the more you share, the more you earn. Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to get started today! |
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| Children killed in Nashville shooting memorized 'Amazing Grace' before massacre | | Missionary Britney Grayson, a pediatric doctor based in Kenya, revealed on Facebook that the three children killed in Monday's shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., had spent the morning in the chapel memorizing the words to "Amazing Grace." Grayson shared an image of the schoolchildren listening to her talk an hour before Audrey Hale, who had recently chosen to self-identify as a man, carried out the murders. The missionary said that the children were learning the word "Jambo" in the chapel, as well as "all the verses of 'Amazing Grace' to sing for grandparents day next week." Read more. | | Female athlete calls for ESPN boycott | | Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines Barker, who now works with the Independent Women's Forum, is calling for viewers to boycott ESPN after the network featured a trans-identified man as part of its "Celebrating Women's History Month." Barker, who had to compete against Lia (Will) Thomas in an NCAA championship last year, slammed the network in a tweet, writing, "Lia Thomas is not a brave, courageous woman who EARNED a national title. He is an arrogant, cheat who STOLE a national title from a hardworking, deserving woman. If I was a woman working at ESPN, I would walk out. You're spineless @espn." Barker, who also used the hashtag #boycottESPN, has previously opened up about tying with Thomas for fifth place in a competition, but the NCAA told her that she would receive a sixth-place trophy to hold in a photograph recognizing the athletes for their achievement and that Thomas would get to hold the fifth-place trophy. An NCAA official told her that "for photo purposes, Lia (a man) has to have the trophy so you can pose with this one, but you go home empty-handed." Barker concluded that she was "reduced to a photo op to validate the identity of a male." Read more. | | Hillsong founder Brian Houston fighting DUI charge in California | | Less than a month before he resigned as global senior pastor in March 2022 in the wake of revelations that two women had made complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years, Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Newport Beach, Calif. Houston was arrested on Feb. 26, 2022, and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a blood alcohol content of .08% or more, and failing to display two license plates on the vehicle he was driving. Houston, who is expected to appear in court on April 4, released a statement on Facebook saying that the arrest happened at a very difficult period in his life and called his decision to drive drunk "foolish." Read more. | | Unitarian Universalists distance themselves from sex-ed assignment | | The Unitarian Universalist Association says that a sex education assignment at an Oregon high school asking students about their sexual fantasies is not part of a comprehensive curriculum it helped develop in conjunction with the United Church of Christ. Churchill High School of Eugene health teacher Kirk Miller was placed on leave earlier this month after asking students in his Health 2 - Human Sexuality class to write a story about their sexual fantasies without detailing any form of penetration, oral sex or intercourse that could result in a sexually transmitted disease. The "Fantasy Story" assignment, which called for students to use items such as romantic music, massage oil, and flavored syrup in their story, caused an uproar among parents. In response, the Eugene 4J School District, which oversees the high school, launched a third-party investigation, and the school district began a review of the "Our Whole Lives" curriculum, which was reportedly used in the health class. The OWL curriculum was originally published in connection with the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association and was first implemented in the 1990s. However, the UUA claims that the assignment in question was an "unapproved adaptation that was taken out of context from an out-of-print version of the curriculum." Read more. |
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| Carl Lentz steps into strategic role at Transformation Church | | Car Lentz has joined Transformation Church as a "strategist" more than two years after a sex and leadership scandal led to his firing from Hillsong Church NYC. The Tulsa-based Transformation Church, which is led by Pastor Michael, announced in a statement provided to 2 News Oklahoma that they believe Lentz has been restored and are pleased to have him "help others experience restoration" as well. Lentz's wife, Laura, shared on Instagram last fall that Lentz had "humbled" himself and taken responsibility for his failures in ministry. "Yep, it has been challenging and hell yeah it's taken a LOT of work the past 22 months (but who's counting) to make our marriage what it has become, & we will never stop working on ourselves, for this marriage and for our kids," she wrote. Read more. | | Greg Locke vows to fight county's lawsuit | | Greg Locke, the pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., plans to fight litigation against his church over allegations that it violates local ordinances regarding planned building expansion, saying the legal action is based on "faulty findings, misrepresentation, and just plain speculation." Tom Brashear, director of Wilson County Development Services, filed a lawsuit against Locke and the church last Thursday, claiming that the church failed to have the proper permits for building and stormwater; it also contends there have been complaints from locals due to noise issues. The lawsuit seeks to force the removal of "all buildings from the property" and for the church to be "permanently enjoined from placing any other buildings on the property until there is full and strict compliance with the Wilson County Zoning Ordinance and the Wilson County Strormwater Regulations." In comments shared with CP on Monday, Locke called the lawsuit "bogus" and said they "will fight as long as it takes," adding, "This is unconstitutional. We will not back down. We don't scare easily. The Lord is on our side and we will be victorious." WKRN reports that multiple noise complaints have been filed against the church, which erected a new tent in February to help reduce the noise. Locke says the church has seen substantial growth since 2020, making a tent the swiftest option available. "Even if we broke ground today, we would still need to be in a tent for two to three years," he stated. Read more. |
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| Christian music community in Nashville reacts to school shooting | | Nashville-based Christian musicians voiced their heartbreak and called for prayer following the shooting at Covenant School that left three children and three adults dead. Keith and Kristyn Getty, the writers behind "In Christ Alone," shared a lengthy post on Facebook, writing, "Today tears have flowed, our minds numb with shock and hearts heavy with grief. ... We had hard and unchartered conversations with our children about the tragic shooting that happened so close to their school. Our community is grieving." Joel and Luke Smallbone of the Christian rock duo for King & Country urged people to pray in an Instagram post, with Joel writing, "I cry writing this, and diverge into feeling helpless … but for HOPE. ... For HOPE that the human heart can change … for HOPE that there is life on the other side of this. And that the six who lost their lives are more free and alive now than they were when they woke up this morning. … For HOPE that there is a brighter future of peace and for the hope of God's great redemption." Other Nashville artists to address the tragedy include Michael W. West, the Christian rock group Needtobreathe, Matthew West, and Carly Pierce. Read their responses here. | | | | | | | | Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow! -- CP Editors |
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