MADISON JALAINE APLING 2

Issue Brief April 2023 | No. IF23D01 This report can be read online at frc.org/HostilityAgainstChurches 801 G Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20001 | frc.org | (202) 393-2100 On March 27, 2023, three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at The Covenant School, a private Christian school and a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. The assailant shot through glass side doors to access areas throughout the building, including the church office and the children’s ministry. Covenant released a statement that said, “Our community is heartbroken. We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church.”1 Research conducted by Family Research Council (FRC) indicates that criminal acts against churches have been steadily on the rise for the past several years, and the first quarter of 2023 has continued the upward trend. The first three months of 2023 saw approximately three times the number of acts of hostility perpetrated against churches in the same timeframe last year. https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF23D04.pdf