Welcome to G3 Weekly—a summary of this week’s top news stories on Christianity and the public square.
This week, officials confirmed that the manifesto from the shooter who killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville will soon be released to the public. Authorities in the Netherlands expanded assisted suicide to children as young as one year old. Meanwhile, popular conservative primetime anchor Tucker Carlson was reportedly dismissed from Fox News because of a speech that framed the current state of American politics in theological terms.
Nashville Shooter Manifesto Will Be Released to the Public
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).
Officials confirmed that the manifesto of the shooter who killed three adults and three children at The Covenant School, a ministry of the conservative evangelical Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, will soon be released to the public.
The assailant, a female who claimed transgender identity, had written a manifesto and several other documents detailing her motive for attacking The Covenant School, which she had previously attended. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, announced that the documents and “information regarding the shooter will be released to the public very soon.”
Some lawmakers have accused federal officers involved with the investigation for the delay of the release. “The FBI isn’t in the business of influencing the public, they’re in the business of investigating crimes,” Representative Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, recently contended. “This manifesto is being delayed to shield a particular group of people and it’s not right. The American people deserve to know what was going through this person’s head.”
Covenant Presbyterian Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America, an evangelical denomination which affirms historic biblical doctrine with respect to human sexuality. The shooting came the same week that some activist groups had declared a transgender “day of vengeance,” including in Tennessee, where lawmakers recently banned sexually explicit drag shows for minors and so-called sex change surgeries.
Dutch Government Approves Euthanasia for Young Children
“Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11).
Authorities in the Netherlands will now permit doctors to euthanize children between one and twelve years of age, asserting that assisted suicide is necessary for many “terminally ill” minors.
“This is a very complex subject that deals with very harrowing situations. Situations you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Dutch Health Minister Ernst Kuipers said in an announcement recently posted by the nation’s government. “I am pleased that, after intensive consultation with all parties involved, we have come to a solution with which we can help these terminally ill children, their parents and also their practitioners.”
The new rules for euthanizing young children come with less rigorous approval and evaluation processes for doctors who administer the procedure since physicians already “feel reluctance to perform late termination of pregnancy or termination of life in newborns.”
Current law in the Netherlands allows children to request euthanasia from the age of twelve with parental consent, while minors between sixteen and eighteen do not necessarily need the approval of their parents. The availability of assisted suicide is rapidly increasing in the Western world, especially in Canada and other nations where socialized medicide creates incentives for governments to encourage the procedure rather than administering expensive palliative care.
Tucker Carlson Ousted from Fox News after Viral Speech
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).
Tucker Carlson was removed from his primetime show on Fox News after he delivered a speech in which he framed the American political divide in terms of good and evil.
The firebrand commentator, whose evening show dominated cable news ratings before his ouster, contended at an event for the Heritage Foundation that conservatives should cease to view the present national conversation as neutral in nature. He described the left’s policy goals as a “theological phenomenon” which fundamentally cannot be considered rational.
“We write our papers and they write their papers, and may the best papers win. I don’t think that’s what we’re watching now at all. I don’t think we’re watching a debate on how to get to the best outcome. I think that’s completely wrong,” Carlson argued. “There is no way to assess, say, the transgenderist movement with that mindset. Policy papers don’t account for it at all. If you have people who are saying, ‘I have an idea, let’s castrate the next generation, let’s sexually mutilate children,’ I’m sorry, that’s not a political debate. That has nothing to do with politics.”
The speech, in which Carlson encouraged people to pray for the future of the nation, allegedly unsettled Murdoch because of his aversion to religion, according to a report from Vanity Fair.
Carlson also referenced Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asserting that the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would harm the economy as more mothers exit the workforce, likening the claim to the views once held by the Aztecs. “If you’re telling me that ‘abortion is a positive good,’ what are you saying? Well, you’re arguing for child sacrifice,” Carlson remarked.
