Trans-identified pastor compares the betrayal of Jesus to treatment of Nashville shooter

Micah Louwagie, who uses they/them pronouns and is the pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Fargo, North Dakota, started out by giving an account of Jesus’s crucifixion, saying his betrayal was due to people being threatened by his mission of love and dignity. This Louwagie likened to people calling for “the eradication of trans folks” following the Nashville school shooting.

“It's baffling to me that someone's existence can be so threatening that people decided they need to be controlled, but they need to have laws made against them. Or even worse, that the people that they find to be so threatening should die,” said Louwagie in a clip shared on the Twitter account Woke Preacher Clips.

"There are a significant number of people who have deemed that the fact that the Nashville shooter happened to be a trans person, so it's been reported, as just the excuse they need to call for the eradication of trans folks," Louwagie continued.

Louwagie went on to suggest that rather than focusing on the issue of gun violence, the fact that six people are dead, and the fact that children are not safe in their own schools, certain people have “decided they need to cause more harm.”

Then came a comparison to the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps, residential schools for indigenous children, and migrants being held in cages.

“It didn’t have to happen this way. Jesus did not die so that violence could be perpetrated in God’s name,” Louwagie told the assembled worshippers. “Jesus did not die for access to guns.”

The pastor also took aim at “allies” who abandon and “betray” the transgender community, the way Jesus's disciples fled after he was arrested.

“Marginalized folks, those of us with the least amount of privilege and power, they need those who have more privilege and power than they do to physically place their bodies between them and the people, powers and institutions that are literally killing them,” said Louwagie.