The week our reflection is by The Rev. Steve Reedy, a gifted theologian, writer, and Cornelius Corps Board member. He challenges us to consider how the death penalty is an expression of corporate revenge and violence that is inconsistent with the Way of Jesus. Rev. Reedy focuses on how the idea of live streaming an execution fits into the larger history of our nation’s use of the death penalty. His reflection includes a short video by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative. Please take the time to read this insightful reflection and watch the video.
Peace – Jim Melson, Executive Director
Sign, Sign Everywhere a Sign
“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” — 1 Chronicles 12:32
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign,” is the opening line from the chorus of the 1971 hit song “Signs” by the Canadian rock band Five Man Electrical Band. The memorable line sums the conflict in the lyrics between a long-haired freedom-seeker in conflict with rigid social, economic and political structures enforced by a violent authoritarianism. The song’s lyrics contrast the bondage of the willing deputies of the suffocating system with the spiritual condition of the freedom seeker, aware and grateful that God sees him.
Today, the signs of authoritarian times are everywhere. On October 8th, 2026, the self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced that the execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad would be live streamed. Hasan was convicted of murdering thirteen and wounding thirty-two people at Fort Hood on Dec. 3rd, 2009. Many of the victims were U.S military personnel, an inestimable loss to hundreds of family members and a grieving nation.
Hasan was driven to murder his fellow soldiers by revenge. The American-born Hasan became increasingly radicalized into an extremist version of Islam through identification with the Muslims being killed by American soldiers in Afghanistan. In his mind, killing the American soldiers was an attempt to even the score. Hasan, shot and paralyzed during his capture, repeatedly declared his desire to be a martyr in his radical cause. In his religious ideology, martyrdom accelerated the revenge cycle.
The announcement of the execution being made public via live streaming provoked a firestorm of bipartisan opposition, including Christians from the range of progressive and conservative traditions. After a week of pushback, President Trump cancelled the live-streaming aspect of execution. The sight of a wheelchair-bound man being executed in context with Hegseth’s pushing a Christian “warrior” ethos was perhaps too much of a public relations contradiction.
The chosen location and scheduled time of the execution? Fort Hood at 1pm, mirroring the place and hour of the atrocity. The symbolism of the time and place, firing squad and the live streaming of the execution points to the authoritarian need for revenge and the reassertion of power dominance.
The intended live-streaming of the execution matches the pattern of authoritarian rule throughout history. Public execution as macabre spectacle has always been used by authoritarian powers to socialize an entire nation into the authoritarian power dominance ethos. Multiple purposes are in view: (1) punish perpetrators; (2) exact revenge on the perpetrator; (3) reassertion of power dominance over a nation, or over an oppressed minority group; (4) sear the national consciousness to state-sponsored violence; (5) reinforce rule by fear.
Public executions as macabre spectacle, both judicial and extra-judicial have marred American history. In the 1862 Mankato Mass Execution, thirty-eight Lakota men were hanged on a specially built platform in front of an assembly of four thousand White citizens.
Three hundred Lakota were originally sentenced to death due to their role in the Lakota uprising due to mass starvation caused by treaty violations by the US government and land encroachments by local Whites. The Lakota had no legal representation, and the proceedings were not explained to them. Some of the trails lasted less than five minutes.
In this conflict, over 350 Whites were killed. President Lincoln cut the number of condemned to thirty-eight, distinguishing between Lakota who fought in battles against U.S. forces against those who committed massacres of civilians. In Lincoln’s pushback against the local sentiment: “Private revenge would on all this border take the place of official judgment on these Indians.” Lincoln knew the legitimacy of governmental authority must rest on a dispassionate justice devoid of revenge. Lincoln, when told that he could have gotten more votes with more hangings, responded: “I could not afford to hang men for votes.” A sign memorializing the hangings was finally removed in 1971.
Public execution as macabre spectacle was a primary feature during the reign of White Supremacist terror in the Jim Crow era. Both judicial and extra-judicial lynchings were often public, carnival like events attended by thousands. The Equal Justice Initiative records over 4,000 lynchings of African Americans between Reconstruction and the World War 2 era (1877-1950), with many more unconfirmed.
The last public execution in the United States occurred in 1936 in Owensboro, KY. Rainey Bethea, a Black man convicted of raping a White woman, was hanged before twenty thousand, including women, children and national media. The national backlash to the ghoulish extravaganza marked the end of public executions in the United States.
The death of Jesus was a public execution as macabre spectacle committed by Roman rulers in league with religious leaders. Pilate ordered a sign placed on the Cross over the head of Jesus: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” The sign was meant to be a warning to those who would challenge the injustice of Roman rule. Prophetically, the sign’s meaning superseded Pilate’s intent by pointing to the inauguration of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the just and peaceable reign of Christ on earth, now and not yet.
The willing sacrifice of Christ through his non-violent resistance to unjust rule overcame evil. Our response to the life, death and Resurrection of Christ is thus the same as Christ taught, and as the Holy Spirit leads. Our response to those like Hasan who have committed atrocities must be just; there must be accountability. This must not involve mass, socialized, violent revenge. Rather, the signs of the Kingdom of Christ are as Francis of Assisi prayed: “Lord, make me an instrument of peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love.”
The video posted below makes the connection between lynching and the death penalty, It is produced by the Equal Justice Initiative. EJI is a non-profit legal advocacy agency committed to criminal justice reform and racial justice. EJI founder Bryan Stevenson asserts that lynching was used to reinforce the White/Black racial hierarchy. He believes the death penalty should be abolished; that the justice system is unfair and unreliable. It disfavors the poor and people of color, and that the rate of erroneous convictions in death penalty cases is shockingly one in eight. Stevenson inverts the question, “does the person convicted of a crime deserve to die” withe the question, “do we deserve to kill?”