Even before Charlie Kirk’s murder in Utah, which has led conservatives to declare war on “the left” as the source of all the nation’s problems, evangelical leaders were blaming transgender people as the source of evil.
A Sunday funeral remembered an 8-year-old victim of the Aug. 27 mass shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis. It could take months or years to determine a motive, but conservative activists said they’ve already discerned the root cause: “trans terrorism.”
Matt Walsh
That’s what Matt Walsh called the shooting — which killed two children and injured 21 other people — in his Aug. 28 podcast, “Trans Shooter Murders Catholic Kids As The Trans Terrorism Epidemic Continues.” Walsh said such killings were “inevitable” when society affirms “the perverse fantasies of sick and delusional people.”
Charlie Kirk weighed in before the sun was down on Aug. 27 with his podcast, “Trans Shooter + Anti-Christian Hate Crime Confirmed” which before his death had more than 350,000 views.
The Annunciation attack occurred two weeks after Family Research Council released its latest annual report, “Hostility Against Churches in the United States.” FRC claims hostility against Christians is rising but the report’s numbers show church incidents actually declined last year.
“We must prepare ourselves for how to live amid such hostility, should this trend continue or perhaps get even worse,” the report warns.
Conservative Christian groups quickly took up the claim that the root cause of the Annunciation killings was transgender identity.
“Confusion and Delusion Lead to Tragic Deaths,” said an article from Focus on the Family: “Sexual confusion and delusion don’t always lead to a mass shooting, of course, but enabling and even celebrating what is an obvious lie benefits absolutely nobody and puts countless individuals and groups into grave and perilous danger.”
Craig DeRoche
Minnesota’s leaders “have created this environment” that led to the killing by promoting “radical trans ideology,” said Craig DeRoche of the Family Policy Alliance, which partners with Focus in 40 states and led the fight for bills in dozens of states that outlawed trans treatments and trans sports participation.
DeRoche criticized Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, claiming he and other Minnesota leaders have embraced “a religion of intolerance” that wars against Christianity. The state’s problems began in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when voters rejected Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and instead chose to “hold on to stupid,” DeRoche said.
“When people act like they’re God, all kinds of bad things can happen,” DeRoche declared.
Neither the Focus article nor the Family Policy Alliance video used the word “gun” in their analyses of the shooting.
The FBI is investigating the shooting as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.” Shooter Robin Westman, who attended Annunciation, requested a 2019 legal name change from Robert.
The killer’s journals paint a picture of a deeply disturbed individual who expressed hate against many groups. The church may have been chosen for the attack because it was a soft target that promised a high kill and injury rate.
Earlier this year, the FBI used a new term to describe one teenaged killer: “Nihilistic Violent Extremist.” Writer David Brooks said the FBI should follow a similar approach with the Annunciation killer, saying the shooting was not anti-Christian or anti-any ideology but rather arose from a world where nothing matters.
The question of motivation haunts Family Research Council’s latest annual report, “Hostility Against Churches in the United States.” The report is confusing, perhaps intentionally so. FRC said the number of incidents at churches in 2024 actually declined from 2023 while simultaneously claiming that hostility against Christians is rising.
Another problem: FRC claims its report documents “over 400 acts of hostility,” but the text of the report contradicts that claim by acknowledging that “motivations for many of these incidents remain unknown.”
“The majority of 415 incidents cited were cases of vandalism … , not hostility against churches or the Christian faith.”
For example, the majority of 415 incidents cited were cases of vandalism (284 incidents), some of which may have been motivated by desire for financial gain, not hostility against churches or the Christian faith.
Family Research Council’s in-house outlet, The Washing Stand, added even more confusion with a deceptive headline: “Violence Against Churches Remains at Unprecedented Level, FRC Report Finds.” The word “unprecedented” means something that never has happened before, so it’s impossible for violence or anything else to remain unprecedented.
FRC’s confusion seemed to confuse some of the conservative Christian outlets that covered the report:
- “Acts Against Christian Churches Are on the Rise” claimed a column on Beliefnet
- “415 US Church Attacks in 2024: New Report Warns of Rising Hostility toward Faith,” reported Catholic Vote
One online outlet highlighted the rise of gun incidents at churches, which rose from 14 in 2023 to 28 in 2024. “Over 400 Acts Against US Churches in 2024, Gun Incidents Double,” it reported.
Reports of attacks on churches need to be taken in context because they make up a relatively small portion of the hate crimes that happen every year in the U.S. The FBI’s latest hate crime statistics shows these groups experienced higher rates of hate crimes:
- Anti-Black or African American: 2,872
- Anti-Jewish: 1,434
- Anti-Gay (Male): 948
- Anti-Hispanic or Latino: 925
- Anti-white: 847
- Anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender: 579
- Anti-other race/ethnicity/ancestry: 445.
Among religious groups, it’s American Jews who face the greatest threats. Jews make up 2% of the population but suffered 18% of all reported hate crimes in 2024, up 5.8% from 2023.
In the two years since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel — the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust — “the tide of anti-Jewish hate has only risen, carrying devastating consequences in its wake,” said The Jewish Federations of North America.
Vice President JD Vance hosts a podcast episode of ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ following the assassination of the show’s namesake, at the White House on September 15. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)
Now, Vice President JD Vance and Trump adviser Stephen Miller spoke on Kirk’s podcast Monday and said the administration will go after the “far left” and dismantle its organizations.
Even though initial evidence says Kirk’s shooter was a conservative who may have not found Kirk conservative enough, the Trump administration has continued to blame Democrats for the murder.
Vance said the administration would “work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country.”
Miller, the architect of Trump’s deportation program, added: “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks.”
Miller described a “vast domestic terror movement” supporting the left that must be stopped.