Affirmation

On Thursday, Robin Westman (nee Robert Westman), a transgender person opened fire through the windows of a Minneapolis Catholic Church during a Mass attended by schoolchildren, killing two children and injuring 17 more. Immediately, the left started doing what they always do with these types of tragedies, exploit it for political purposes. Actress Mia Farrow, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Congresswoman Amy Klobuchar, all blamed this tragedy on guns and Republicans, and called for strict gun control measures. They are exploiting this tragedy to push their political agenda and take guns away from law-abiding citizens.

There was no mention of the fact that there has been an extreme uptick in these types of shooting committed by members of the transgender community.

Robin Westman, the person who committed this act of violence in Minnesota, was a trans-female.

Dylan Butler, who killed 3 people and wounded 4 others, at Perry High School, in Perry, Iowa on January 4, 2024, was a member of the LGBTQ community.

Audrey Elizabeth Hale who committed a mass shooting at The Covenant School, in Nashville, Tennessee On March 27, 2023, was transgender.

Anderson Lee Aldrich who fatally shot five people and wounded 17 the nightclub Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Nov. 19, 2022, self-identified as non-binary in his court proceedings.

Alec McKinney who shot up the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, on May 7, 2019, was transgender. 

Snochia Moseley who shot and killed four people at a Rite Aid in Aberdeen, Maryland on September 20, 2018, was transgender.

These examples are not to illustrate that all people who are transgender or part of the LGBTQ community will commit extreme acts of violence. In fact, a very small percentage of the individuals in that community have committed such acts. So, it is better to view everyone as an individual, rather than prejudice your opinions of an entire community based on the acts of few. So, while we are at it, we should also offer the same latitude to the gun owning community. The overwhelming majority – over 99% – of the gun owning population in the United States never use their guns to commit acts of violence. So, why should we punish everyone in the gun owning community, by taking their guns from them, based solely on the acts of a few?  That would be like saying that we should ban alcohol because a small percentage of the alcohol drinking population, drives drunk and kills people.

NPR Correspondent Odette Yousef claimed that the “trans community in the U.S. is vulnerable” and that might lead to them being “susceptible to online radicalization in ways others may not be.” The Minneapolis shooter definitely was radicalized. His manifesto was filled with anti-Trump and anti-Jewish messages. He referred to Jews, as, “entitled, Penny sniffing K***s” and said that “6 million wasn’t enough”.  One of the magazines of his guns contained the words, “Kill Donald Trump,” “Where is your God?” and “Israel Must Fall”.  So, this person who is so enraged about not being affirmed by Christians and the political right that it triggered him to shoot up a Catholic church, refused to affirm Jewish people’s right to exist and the political beliefs of others.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey made a statement attempting to protect the transgender community. He said, “anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity. We should not be operating out of a place of hate for anyone.” He claimed that he had “heard about a whole lot of hate that’s being directed at” the transgender community. Mayor Frey also went on to say, “we love our trans community. They’re suffering.” 

How again is the trans community suffering? Our society bends over backwards to glorify people in the LGBTQ community. We have designated the entire month of June to exalt them, telling people in that community how strong and brave they are. Caitlin Jenner was named Glamour magazine, Woman of the Year, the first year she was a woman, and also received, ESPN Author Ashe Courage award. 

The people in the trans community believe that they are suffering because they have an obsession with being affirmed by the world. They demand that the rest of us affirm them in their identity which if it was truly their identity, they wouldn’t require affirmation from others. This person could not stand the idea that there were people in that Church who may not think that he was the bravest most special person in the world and because of that, he believed that they must die.

If this person would have simply affirmed the right of Christians to hold the religious beliefs they do, in the way that he expected to be affirmed in his beliefs and his lifestyle, then he wouldn’t have felt the need to shoot a lot of Christians. If this person would have adopted the philosophy of “live and let live”, then no one would’ve been murdered in that church. But the LGBTQ community no longer lives by that philosophy. They demand that everybody in the world must agree with them, and must affirm them, their beliefs and their identity, and if they do not, then they are vile evil people. We have seen how they have viciously vilified beloved children’s author JK Rowlings who refused to completely affirm the trans-agenda. There is no in between. If you don’t 100% affirm them and 100% agree with them, you are an evil Nazi, and that mindset is what led to those children being murdered in Minneapolis.

Christians, on the other hand, are the most persecuted group in the world today. Around the world, there are more Christians murdered for their beliefs than any other group. Christianity is regularly mocked and ridiculed on TV, in social media and throughout our culture to a level that no other religion is. Christians are regularly ridiculed by members of the trans-community. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are drag queens who dress like nuns and mock Christianity in public. Yet Christians do not decide to murder little children because of it. The reason why we as Christians do not feel the need to harm people who don’t affirm us is because we are not trying to be affirmed by the world; we’re trying to be affirmed by God, and that often times means going against the world, standing against what’s popular in the world. This is what it means to be a Christian; the world is going to lash out against you for your beliefs. We understand that we will never be affirmed by everyone, or even most people.

Jesus warned us of the costs of following him. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus told his disciples, “You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” (Luke 21:9) But also told them on the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” (Matt 5:10-12)

Jesus wasn’t asking to be affirmed by this world, he was telling his disciples expect not to be affirmed by the world. And Jesus is the greatest example of not being affirmed by the world. He was beaten, he was scourged, he was mocked, he was ridiculed, he was spat upon, he was nailed to a wooden and left to die. How did Jesus respond to not being affirmed? When the Roman soldiers came to take him away to be crucified and Peter severed the ear of one of the soldiers, Jesus rebuked Peter and healed the man’s ear. When he was about to die on the cross, Jesus called out to God to forgive the people who were crucifying him, saying, “father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus clearly was not affirmed by the world, and yet through his death and his resurrection, he offered salvation to the entire world. Jesus used that lack of affirmation from the world to save the world, not destroy it.

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Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.