Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has proposed livestreaming the execution of a man convicted of the 2009 attack on Fort Hood. Some scholars say the idea is rooted in his religious background.
Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It has been 90 years since the U.S. government publicly executed someone. Since then, the idea of public executions in the U.S. has largely been forgotten. But last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would livestream the execution of the man convicted in the 2009 attack on Fort Hood. And some religious scholars see this proposal as one rooted in Hegseth’s particular brand of Christian nationalism. NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef joins us now to discuss. Hi, Odette.
ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: Hey. OK, so let’s just back up a bit. Can you please remind everyone about what happened in the attack on Fort Hood 17 years ago?
YOUSEF: Sure. So on November 5 of 2009, a U.S. Army major named Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and injured another 32 in what’s since been called the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001. Now, Hasan was an Army psychiatrist who was radicalized into violent Islamist extremism. And after the attack, Ailsa, investigations found that there were numerous failures over the course of his time in the military. Peers and superiors were aware of his radicalization, but there was no meaningful action taken to discipline or remove him.
CHANG: And now he may be the first American to be publicly executed by the federal government in – what? – nearly a century. How is the Pentagon explaining this decision?
YOUSEF: Well, Hegseth talks about this as a deterrent to possible future similar attacks. But I spoke with Julie Ingersoll about this. She’s a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, and she’s an expert on the church that Hegseth belongs to, called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. And Ingersoll told me that when she heard about this public execution by firing squad, her thoughts immediately went to Hegseth’s religious background.
JULIE INGERSOLL: Part of their theology is the dominion mandate, so building a theocracy is a religious act for them. And executing infidels is part of that theocratic vision.
CHANG: Wow. Just those words like infidels, theocratic vision. Can you just help us understand why she’s using words like that there?
YOUSEF: Yeah. So, you know, within certain strands of Christian nationalism, including the CREC, there is a belief that they have a mandate to impose their interpretation of Christianity over all aspects of life. So, Ailsa, they speak of building God’s dominion on Earth. You know, some people use the word theocracy when they describe this project. You know, the more technically correct term may be theonomy, meaning, you know, government by God or subject to God’s authority.
As for the term infidels here, this refers to Hegseth particular apparent animus toward Islam. You know, Hegseth has tattoos valorizing the medieval crusades. One of his books is titled “American Crusade,” and he’s written critically about increases in Muslim populations in England and in the U.S. So all of this, you know, paired with a pretty unanimous support for the death penalty within the church that Hegseth belongs to, you know, that’s how you get this proposal to livestream an execution.
CHANG: But there are still questions about whether this public execution will actually happen, right? Because Vice President JD Vance expressed his discomfort with this whole idea just last week. And if this doesn’t go forward, do you see the discussion around public execution going away anytime soon?
YOUSEF: So, you know, this is, I think, what’s particularly concerning to Ingersoll, as well as Matthew Taylor (ph), another religious expert I spoke to. Both of them told me that, in some ways, the damage is already done just by the public proposal of this method of justice. And that’s because, you know, an idea that lies at the very extreme end of what the public considers acceptable policy has now been put forth by a powerful Cabinet member.
CHANG: Right.
YOUSEF: And so just that itself shifts the boundaries of the conversation. You know, what was once unthinkable, unsayable, has been said. And so people are now considering this. And that is how, you know, more generally, Ailsa, we see extremist ideas shift the public conversation.
CHANG: That is NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef. Thank you, Odette.
YOUSEF: Thanks for having me.
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