Hegseth church allies backed plan for ‘public’ execution of Fort Hood shooter

Key points

• Donald Trump cancelled Pete Hegseth's plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan, set for 3 December at Fort Hood, Texas.
• Douglas Wilson, de facto leader of Hegseth's CREC church, said he prefers public executions to private ones and supported Hasan's execution.
• Pope Leo, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and other religious leaders condemned the plan, while a Pentagon spokesperson said the execution will be livestreamed.

Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was cancelling Pete Hegseth's recently announced plan to livestream the military execution of Nidal Hasan, saying that many well-meaning people would rather not watch him die. Hegseth, the US defense secretary, had said last week that the public would be able to watch Hasan's firing-squad execution, scheduled for 3 December at Fort Hood, Texas.

Hasan, a former army major and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood in 2009. A military court sentenced him to death in August 2013. Hegseth called the shooting a radical Islamist attack in uniform and said Hasan would get a firing squad of soldiers.

Support from church allies

Douglas Wilson, the de facto leader of Hegseth's theocratic Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, welcomed the announcement. Wilson, an Idaho pastor who co-founded CREC, has promoted capital punishment as biblically authorized for decades. He told Religion News that he prefers public executions to those conducted in the recesses of a prison in the middle of the night, adding that executions in the scriptures were public.

Wilson told the Guardian that he supports the execution of Hasan and prefers public executions to private. He said he prefers older forms like a firing squad over attempts to medicalize it. He also said the Pentagon has the responsibility to head off ghoulish behavior, but admitted that will be challenging with a live stream. Wilson wrote that he had not spoken to Hegseth or anyone in his department about the issue.

I support the execution of Hasan, and prefer public executions to private

— Douglas Wilson

Opposition and other reactions

Wilson and his religious allies are at odds with other religious leaders, including Pope Leo and the archbishop to the US military, Timothy Broglio, both of whom have condemned Hegseth's plans. On Saturday, Pope Leo wrote on X that the common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment. The previous evening, Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin said it was certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.

Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, reportedly called the plan a barbaric promotion of a culture of death. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said a livestreamed execution risks turning one of the state's most solemn responsibilities into a public spectacle. A Department of Defense spokesperson wrote in an email that the secretary is correct and it will be livestreamed, with details to follow.