In the aftermath of the tragic shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, TN, by a transgender man, the media has been laced with subtle, and sometimes not so-subtle, mockery of Christians and praying. Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center spoke to Fox News Digital about his perception of media coverage after the shooting. “The media coverage is absolutely tainted by the facts of the case with both the location and victims being outside what one could view as the traditionally liberal, secular world in which much of the journalism profession operates… But along with the proximity bias, the coverage has been horrendous on account of the fact that the victims represent the kind of worldview that the left views as backward and hateful and whose very existence contributes to the suffering of groups they hold dear — supporters of abortion, the LGBTQ community, traditional views on sex, etc.”

Apologist Natasha Crain shared a series of mocking tweets and statements on her blog. In a now-deleted tweet, David Pakman of “The David Pakman Show” wrote, “Very surprising that there would be a mass shooting at a Christian school, given that lack of prayer is often blamed for these horrible events. Is it possible they weren’t praying enough, or correctly, despite being a Christian school?” Mervyn Warren, a film composer, wrote, “The people at that Christian school in Nashville prayed that their children would be safe. How did that work out?” In a long post on Twitter, Ken Ham, CEO of Answers in Genesis, criticized the media’s handling of the shooting. “Secular media outlets that showed little or no sympathy for the victims and their families came across as having sympathy for the shooter because she said she was trans. The media was also reported for mocking prayer in this headline, ‘Media mockery of prayer ‘subtle smears’ against Christianity coverage of Nashville massacre.’ No doubt they did this because they know Christians, based on God’s clear word, teach there are only two genders of humans, male and female,” Ham wrote. 

In an op-ed for The Dispatch, Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, which recently moved its headquarters to Nashville, wrote, “…so this week, we are learning what pops up in the narrative machine when the inputs are ‘trans man’ and ‘Christian schoolchildren.’ And here’s what pops up: America is systemically cruel to trans people, who apparently cannot be blamed for losing control and targeting small children at Christian schools. A hate crime by a trans-identifying person against a religious group is immediately transmuted into a generalized societal crime against the mass shooter herself.” A Google search of “transgender man shoots Christians” turns up articles entitled “The right exploits Nashville shooting to escalate anti-trans rhetoric,” “Advocates fear an escalation of hate toward trans community after Nashville shooting,” and “Trans people already fighting for rights in Tennessee have a new fear in the wake of a tragedy.” Only one article on the first page of the search makes any reference to the victims of the shooter.