Franklin Graham on Nashville Shooting: ‘We’re Surrounded by Evil’

“We’re surrounded by evil in this world — and that’s what we saw walk into that Nashville elementary school yesterday — evil,” Rev. Franklin Graham wrote in reference to Monday’s lethal school shooting that left six dead.

“The evil certainly wasn’t in the weapon, but it was in the heart and mind of the one who came to kill and destroy,” Graham wrote in a Facebook post.

On Monday morning, a heavily armed 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a biological female identifying as male, stormed The Covenant School and shot to death three adults and three 9-year-old children before she was put down by police.

In his post, Rev. Graham praised the law enforcement officers and first responders who rushed into the school not knowing what they would encounter.

“They didn’t hesitate — they ran into the fire, risking their own lives to save lives,” he noted. “Within 15 minutes of the initial shots, the killer was taken down. We applaud them for their bravery, and I thank God for each one of them.”

Bodycam Showing Take Down of Nashville Christian School Shooter

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department

We mourn the victims of the shooting, Graham said, “but the Bible tells us that we do not grieve as those without hope — because our resurrected Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, has defeated death, sin, and Satan through the Cross.”

God the Father has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, “to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away,” Graham said, citing Saint Peter, a text particularly apt for the approaching Christian celebration of Holy Week and Easter.

In his analysis of the shooting, Catholic League president Bill Donohue noted that the incident probably constituted a “hate crime” since the perpetrator intentionally targeted a Christian school that she had reportedly attended years earlier.

“The shooter, Audrey Hale, is a female who misidentified herself as a male. Her resentment against The Covenant School, a Christian school, is important given that Christianity teaches we are either male or female,” Dr. Donohue wrote.

“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,” Donohue wrote, adding that the woman’s mother “works at a local church and frequently posts about religion on social media.”

“Transgender young people have emotional and mental disorders. They need help. They are also being taught to hate everyone not like them,” Donohue stated.

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