The Covenant School is an elementary school affiliated with Covenant Presbyterian Church, a congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America. (Since the shooting this morning, Covenant Presbyterian Church appears to have taken down its website.) The school is a member of the Independent Schools of the Nashville Area and the Southern Association of Independent Schools.
The shooter was identified as Audrey Hale. The 28-year-old Hale is a former student at the school and, according to Nashville Police Chief John Drake, identified as transgender.
One of the victims was Hallie Scruggs. She was the 9-year-old daughter of Chad Scruggs, the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church
Another victim was Dr. Katherine Koonce, the head of the school. Koonce was a veteran Christian school administrator with a degree from Vanderbilt, Georgia State University, and Trevecca Nazarene. She hasn’t tweeted in a while, but you can get a sense of who she was here and here.
Here are some responses, many from the world of American evangelicalism:
Let’s begin with Andy Ogles, the guy who represents Covenant Presbyterian Church in the United States House of Representatives:
Here is Daniel Silliman’s reporting at Christianity Today.
Two things are worth mentioning about the following tweet. The first is a question: Will this shooting lead Marsha Blackburn to do anything about gun control? Second, there was some confusion about the denomination of Covenant Presbyterian Church. This tweeter is correct. The church is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America:
Here is the entire Blackburn tweet:
By the way, Blackburn’s previous tweet was about gas stoves:
Walter Kim, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was a Presbyterian Church in America pastor:
Joe Biden:
Franklin Graham asks for prayers:
David French, who I believe attends a Presbyterian Church in America in the Nashville area:
Barack Obama. The women seen in this tweet was at the Highland Park, Illinois last summer:
Here is the evangelical MAGA crowd:
William Wolfe is a graduate of a Presbyterian Church in America college:
It sure seems “really important” to Charlie:
Sean Feucht is all over this story. (Former Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano retweeted this Feucht tweet):
Huck is worried about making this a “political issue”:
We’ll try to stay on top of this.