In recent months, following the Covenant School Shooting, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission head Brent Leatherwood has been outspoken in support of gun control legislation, throwing the lobbying power of the Southern Baptist Convention behind the gun control proposals of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.
Leatherwood, whose three children attend Covenant School, supports the governor’s bid to bring red-flag gun control laws to Tennessee, which would result in the removal of guns from the possession of citizens without due process. But actions have consequences, and this move could be used in the future to nullify the second amendment rights of Christians who are deemed ideological enemies of the secular status quo.
The real story behind the Covenant School shooting is the fact that the shooter, Audrey Hale, a former student of the school, was an ideologically driven transgender activist who targeted the school for holding views diametrically opposed to her own. Hale detailed these reasons in a manifesto, which is being withheld from the public.
In addition to lobbying for gun control, Brent Leatherwood has joined the fight to prevent the release of the transgender shooter’s manifesto. Leatherwood claims that those who oppose the move to withhold the documents are “unhinged activists, unthinking partisans, conspiracy theorists, and various media outlets that value clicks over their community.”
If the manifesto was released and the public received a clear picture that the shooter was a mentally ill sexual deviant who chose to target the school because it held a Biblical view of sexuality, the push for gun control in the state would lose its momentum and politicians could focus on the real ideological issues behind the shooting.
If the manifesto were truly a nothing-burger that contained no new information regarding motive, there would be no reason for all of the legal gamesmanship on the part of Leatherwood and others to shield it from the public’s view.
Ironically, the ERLC head, who claims to have the ethical high ground, is trying to hide what happened in a desperate bid to salvage political gun-grab legislation. Several state legislators saw through these efforts in the spring session, resulting in a tabling of Governor Lee’s proposal. The governor has vowed to take up the gun control legislation in a fall special session.
Brent Leatherwood and the ERLC will continue to lobby for gun control, using Southern Baptist tithe dollars for a purpose that would undoubtedly lack support from most Southern Baptist church members.
