Truth Unites - Should Executions Be Livestreamed?

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

Gavin Ortlund considers whether Christians should watch a livestreamed execution, arguing that justice should be carried out with sobriety rather than turned into a spectacle, and reflecting on how viewing violence can shape us.Truth Unites (https://truthunites.org) exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is President of Truth Unites, Visiting Professor of Historical Theology at Phoenix Seminary, and Theologian-in-Residence at Immanuel Nashville.SUPPORT:Tax Deductible Support: https://truthunites.org/donate/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truthunitesFOLLOW:Website: https://truthunites.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truth.unites/X: https://x.com/gavinortlundFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/

The U.S. Pentagon announced plans to live stream the December 3rd execution of Nidal Hassan, who killed 14 people in 2009, including an unborn infant. And the Secretary of Defense Pete Hexeth told a reporter that part of the rationale is for people to understand that there are serious consequences for this kind of behavior. Now, this has led many Christians, myself included, to raise alarm about this, not because of opposition to the death penalty as such, and not because, Sons' actions were anything less than horrendous. But the concern here is for many, and what I want to extend in this video, is that justice is not meant to be a spectacle, and watching an execution

through the medium of a screen risks escalating some of the worst tendencies of human nature at play in the world right now. As far as I can tell, this is a historically unprecedented event. And so it's worth thinking about those of us who are followers of Jesus, for example. We want to think theologically about this. How should we understand this? Try to make a brief video of it here with fear and trembling, hoping I say what is helpful and leading us toward hope and integrity. But if this is carried out, this would be the first publicly live streamed government execution in American history. The last public execution in America before a large audience, I believe, occurred in the 1930s, almost 100 years ago in Kentucky when a man was hanged in front of about 20,000 spectators.

And then soon after that, there was a lot of backlash against that. I think the recognition is this is not good for society and the effect that it has upon people watching. And it was outlawed in Kentucky soon after that. Today we have the technology to live stream an event. And so the question we need to wrestle with is, what impact does that have? What precedent does it set for the future? Now, let me unfold my concern by interacting with.

with a counter argument that comes up frequently, especially from Christians, and that is in the Bible, execution of capital punishment was public so as to function as a deterrent for onlookers. So, for example, after the execution of a person inciting others to idolatry, Deuteronomy 1311, talks about how others will then hear and fear and not commit this wicked action. But let me articulate my concern by noticing two huge differences between an Old Testament law like that and what we're seeing today. Technology and then theology. So first, this execution is being live streamed to be watched through screens anywhere in the world by anyone. And the medium shapes how we experience an event. Most of what we watch on screens, for example, is entertainment. That's how we're

typically relating to screens. And an unrestricted live stream makes death permanently, this death, permanently available for memes and for replaying, and you know how the internet is. I mean, you can already see sort of where this can go, just read the Reddit discussions of whether people are planning on watching the execution. Most people say no, thankfully, but you also find these horrifying comments like absolutely with popcorn, record and make memes of it. Yes, I will be watching. It will be satisfying. I'm a simple man. So this is very concerning. Look, in the book of Deuteronomy, nobody was watching an execution with popcorn or making a meme of it. The whole point of capital punishment in the Bible is to restrain horrendous evil and create

a fear of God. Live streaming an event so that anybody can watch it through the anonymity of a screen is more likely to promote the culture of flippancy and lack of decency that we are seeing escalating around us right now. Some have even argued that the effect of live stream an execution is far more likely to create sympathy for criminals. Again, the concern is not with the death penalty. The concern is with inflaming our basest passions. The execution of justice should be conducted with sobriety, not with glee. And this is what the internet can produce. And we know this. We see this escalating up. The heart of God is for justice against all sin, but it is not gleeful and vengeful. For example, God says he takes no pleasure in the

death of the wicked, and the message of the whole Bible is of a God who's so committed to both love and justice that on the cross in the person of Christ he's willing to take on the sting of justice so that anybody who repents, no matter what you did, you can be forgiven. That's the message of the gospel, the message that the whole Bible is about. Is live streaming a public execution directing us toward that kind of justice and goodness and so forth? I fear that it isn't. The second concern is that there are historical and covenantal differences from books like Deuteronomy to now. We're not in the old covenant anymore. Now, this does not mean that we have nothing to learn from these Old Testament laws,

but it means we need to be careful how we interpret them. Basically, we need good biblical hermeneutics here. Now, this is complicated. I'm not trying to settle this. I just want to highlight the complexity of this and make a plea for caution, because I experience many Christians to simply quote, an Old Testament law from Deuteronomy or Leviticus, and then apply that to modern nations' practice directly. And the concern here is a leapfrogging over issues of New Testament fulfillment.

So consider how Jesus, for example, treated the Old Testament law. On the one hand, we have his utmost respect for it, for example, even down to the tiny details in Matthew 518. At the same time, Jesus is a good model for interpreting the law in its context in the unfolding biblical narrative. So, for example, in Deuteronomy 24, we have laws about divorce. And the Pharisees actually use these laws. They're quoting the Bible to Jesus when they confront him on his teaching about marriage and divorce in Matthew 19. And note what Jesus says in response. First, he recognizes that this law was in response to a particular circumstance.

Because of the hardness of your heart, Moses allowed. Second, he recognizes this law is not a reflection of God's creational ideal. Note those final words. From the beginning, it was not so. So Jesus is interpreting Deuteronomy in relation to Genesis and the entire unfolding biblical story. Now, that does not settle how we treat other laws like those about capital punishment,

but it reminds us of the harmonetical principle here. It seems to me that a good case can be made that capital punishment as such still has a place in the New Covenant era. We find lots of New Testament verses that seem in that direction, one on screen, but that is not the same as just direct applying of laws that are given in a theocratic context to ancient Israel as though that applies to Christians specifically today or to modern nation states. And if we think that New Covenant fulfillment changes nothing about how we think about capital punishment, I would say we need to wrestle with the witness of the early church.

I have one video up on this that might be of interest to chase this down more fully, but what I'm trying to show there is how common pacifism or something near pacifism was within the early church until Augustine, late 4th century and going forward. Here's an example from Athenagoras, where he goes so far as to say, we cannot endure even to see a man put to death, though justly, and he even says, that to see a man put to death is much the same as killing him. Now, let's be careful with this. Those words have a particular context.

He's speaking, for example, of the gladiator games and saying Christians should not go to the gladiator games. He's responding to various critiques of Christians going on, the Christians are cannibals and so forth. Nonetheless, it is not uncommon to find Christians throughout the second and third centuries speaking against any or almost any act of taking life or watching of the taking of life.

And you can see my video for that. I'm just referencing that now as one reason why we need to be careful about leapfrogging over New Testament fulfillment to these Old Testament laws. But again, my deepest, most basic concern is even more basic, and it just has to do with the live streaming

of this event and the impact that we'll have. So summing up, trying to say something to direct our hearts toward Christ and toward integrity, because I know these things, you know, here's the other thing. these things boil up, and then the reaction often leads us to become very angry with each other and our different views that we might land on.

And then also we can be tempted towards cynicism, and we just say the world is so corrupt, and we just sort of want to retreat and go live in a cave somewhere. So let me say two things to try to tune our hearts toward Christ as we see so many dark things happening in the world. Number one, on this particular issue, I would want to encourage Christians to be mindful of the effect of viewing violence. Some people might be of the mindset that, well, if I'm just watching it, that's not as bad because I'm not actually doing any violence. Now, in my video on entertainment in the early church, one of the things I draw attention to among early Christians for why they were

making their appeal, not to go to the Coliseum, not to go to the theaters where you see violence and sexual immorality being depicted is because of the moral shaping that happens from watching something. Viewing something is not morally neutral. And just to give one example, the early Christian Cyprian talks about how during the Gladiator Games, vices are not just being committed, they're being taught. The early Christians actually viewed the Gladiator Games as a form of catechesis. It's sort of shaping how we experience and how we view violence. How much more watching things on screens today can do this? So we need to be mindful of that. You can see my video on that topic for more on that. But off of this particular issue, and now just in general, when we feel a sense of fear or

hopelessness at the darkness of the world around us, whatever particular conclusions we come to about this latest issue, here's a reminder for us that often I find I need to set my heart in the right direction. Let's be advocates for human dignity and for human decency in our increasingly chaotic world. I don't know about you, but it seems like we are in a time of cultural decay, where our society is sliding away from any sense of decency. And the right response to that isn't to give up or despair, but as followers of Christ, it's to lean in and try to slow the decay down and try to reverse it wherever we can, to speak up on behalf of human dignity, even if we take some shots, even if it's a noisier environment, not to just retreat from any sort of discourse or advocacy.

To speak the hope of the gospel, because a lot of people are struggling with hopelessness right now, and it's a great time to share about Christ and the hope we have. To be faithful in our work settings and try to preserve stability and peace. For example, in my mind, I'm thinking of people watching this video, maybe you're a public school teacher. Maybe you're a high school teacher. do you know how important that that job is right now? I'm sure it's probably not as easy to be a high school teacher right now than versus 10 years ago. But the impact you can make is huge. Parents shaping your children's values even when it makes you stand out. Business owners having integrity despite pressure

to cut corners. Pastors and church leaders persevering amid slander and tribulation and turmoil in your church or whatever you might be going through, these things matter more than ever. In my mind, I'm picturing, what if Christians were like the glue holding things together in the direction of peace and order and goodness? I think of Peter's counsel to Christians waiting on the final judgment and the return of Christ, speaking of being diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish. We're thinking of Paul's words about Christians being without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. See, this is what's in my heart. It's like, you know, we can talk about various current events. But in the

and with that, there's this broader calling of, when the world is going crazy, we're not called to give up or retreat. We're called to lean forward with the hope of Christ. And both of those passages have that sense of without blemish amidst the craziness around. And what makes my heart leap is, what if Christians were like that, leaning in? And that's why we have to talk about these current issues, but also why we shouldn't just give up and feel despair. I think the Christians in the second and third centuries are a great example for us. They're living in the brutality of the Roman Empire. They're resisting the sexual immorality that's all around, just like it is in our culture. They're practicing hospitality. They're taking in abandoned infants. They're speaking boldly about

Jesus and repentance and God and hope and all of these things. And the gospel went forward in that time. And my passion is that the gospel would go forward in our day right in the midst of the craziness all around us. And that means we need to, we need to talk to. We need to, we need to about these current events that are happening. We need to, you know, come down with, here's what we should do as Christians and talk about them. But in and with all of that, there's this sense of, yeah, but not in a spirit of despair and rage, in a spirit of Jesus, help me to be one of those people without blemish, whatever else is going on around me. And so I want to be a voice to advocate in favor of human dignity and in favor of life. I'm concerned about this current event, but even more than that,

just as we go forward, for Christians to have our eyes on Christ right now, here in 2006. It's never been more important to do that. All right, what did I miss? Let me know in the comments. I know you will. Oh boy. Yep, I'll read the comments. Thanks for watching, everybody. God bless you.