Hasan, a former Army major and violent Islamist extremist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. His execution by firing squad is scheduled for Dec. 3. Hegseth said last week that the public should be able to watch, arguing that people need to understand the consequences of such attacks.

It remained unclear Thursday whether a livestream would happen. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the administration was “looking at it,” while Vice President JD Vance said he would not watch. The uncertainty has not eased concerns among some religious scholars, who say publicly promoting the idea may make an extreme punishment seem more acceptable.

“Just saying it out loud moves the boundary,” said Julie Ingersoll, a University of North Florida religion professor who studies the religious right and Christian Reconstruction.

Hegseth is affiliated with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. Ingersoll said support for capital punishment is broadly accepted within that community, including for offenses that carry the death penalty in the Hebrew Bible. She said public execution also fits that outlook.

Matthew Taylor, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice, said Hegseth’s proposal is far outside the mainstream of American Christianity. He warned that the defense secretary could use his position to advance a religious and political ideology within the Pentagon. The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

The proposal has also drawn objections from faith leaders. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who serves Catholics in the U.S. military, criticized the plan and advised any Catholic service members assigned to the firing squad to seek an excusal.

Joshua Salaam, president of the Association of Muslim Chaplains, questioned whether Hasan is being treated differently because of his faith. “The answer that most people from my community will say is it has something to do with his religious beliefs, his religious identity,” Salaam said.

Ingersoll linked Hegseth’s religious affiliation and apparent hostility toward Islam to a broader Christian nationalist project sometimes described as dominionism: the belief that Christians have a biblical mandate to impose their religious governance across society. Taylor pointed to Hegseth’s tattoos, including the phrase “Deus Vult,” and his book “American Crusade” as signs of his focus on the Crusades and a perceived conflict between Western Christianity and Islam.

The idea of televised executions has also appeared in wider right-wing circles. In a 2024 podcast, conservative activist Charlie Kirk argued that executions should be public and televised, and suggested corporations could help finance broadcasts.

Even if Hasan’s execution is not livestreamed, Taylor said, the proposal may help establish a precedent for the military and American culture. Salaam cautioned that making an execution a public spectacle would affect more than the person being punished. “It does something to all of us to have to watch something like that publicly,” he said.