US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has announced plans to publicly livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the Islamist terrorist convicted of murdering 13 people and attempting to murder 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009.
The execution, which is scheduled for December 3, will be carried out by firing squad at the scene of Hasan’s massacre.
But the decision has provoked international condemnation, including from some public Christian voices.
Pope Leo XIV condemned the death penalty, describing it as “inadmissible,” and claiming it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.
Live Action founder Lila Rose argued on X that Hasan admired suicide bombers and wanted to die. She questioned whether publicly executing a suicidal terrorist would deter terrorism rather than serve his desire for martyrdom.
That might be a fair point, but she also went further, describing public executions as “bloodlust,” claiming they will “breed vengeance, violence and dehumanisation.” She added, “Satan loves this.”
But there’s a fundamental problem with the insinuation that public executions are inherently immoral, barbaric, or even satanic.
God Himself prescribed public executions in His Law.
In Leviticus 24:14, God commanded that the congregation participate in carrying out a capital sentence.
“Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.” (Lev. 24:14, ESV)
In Deuteronomy 21:21, he explained that such punishment would purge evil from Israel, and that the people would hear of it and fear it.
“And all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.” (Deut. 21:21, ESV)
Public punishment wasn’t some unfortunate barbarism that God reluctantly tolerated for a time. It was part of His revealed system of justice. It was His just answer to particular crimes.
So, when Christians condemn the principle as immoral, outdated, or unloving, the question that must be asked is: By what standard can something God explicitly commanded be declared evil?
Such a moral judgement necessarily appeals to an imagined moral authority that sits higher than God Himself.
Jesus declared that He had not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it (Matt. 5:17). Paul affirmed that God’s law is holy, righteous, and good (Rom. 7:12) and that love fulfils the law (Rom. 13:10).
As such, God’s commandments are not contrary to goodness, justice, or love. They reveal what goodness, justice, and love require.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that every judicial procedure must be exactly reproduced by governments today. But Christians can’t condemn a principle God prescribed without implicating the character of the Lawgiver.
Public execution isn’t intended to be a morbid form of entertainment. That is a gross caricature of our ancestors, conjured up by those who despise God’s justice. Instead, it’s intended to communicate the seriousness of evil and the certainty of its consequences.
God knows something modern sentimentalism often overlooks: not every human being considers the consequences of their actions. Some are governed by their own immediate desires, passions, and “animal” impulses. The public administration of justice vividly brings the consequences of wrongdoing into the present.
Like it or not, leaders throughout history have understood that some people only learn when confronted with the consequences of their actions. Public executions were intended to deter wrongdoing, particularly among those who lacked the moral restraint to govern themselves. If their own virtue would not restrain them, fear of punishment might.
And that was precisely God’s stated purpose of public punishment under biblical law: that others would hear, fear, and refrain from evil.
Today, society has largely concealed death from public life. We sanitise it, institutionalise it, and remove it from ordinary view. In the minds of many, death is something that only ever happens to other people. It’s something we only ever witness in movies or on television. It’s as removed from our reality as dragons and caped superheroes.
And yet, death remains the one appointment none of us can escape. We are all, in effect, on death row.
Public executions, however, confront the public with that uncomfortable reality most people would rather ignore. The condemned man faces an immediate sentence. But every spectator is also under a sentence of death.
As Hebrews 9:27 reminds us, it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.
This isn’t an invitation to celebrate another man’s death. It’s a warning to everyone to consider their own.
Indeed, as Ecclesiastes 7:2 teaches, confronting death is profitable precisely because the living take it to heart.
A public execution should therefore produce national sobriety, not bloodlust. It should remind us that sin is serious, justice is necessary, human life is sacred, and death is certain.
Above all, it should remind us that something is fundamentally wrong with this world. We live under the curse of sin and death. The grave awaits us all. And no amount of social progress or sentimental moralising can deliver us from it.
That’s why our greatest need isn’t a society that attempts to soften the blow of death or remove it from public view. Our greatest need is reconciliation with the source of Life, the One True God.
Justice reminds us that sin deserves judgment. The Gospel reveals that Jesus Christ alone can save us from it.