Wilson told the outlet that public executions can “turn into a circus”.

Wilson told the Guardian that “I support the execution of Hasan, and prefer public executions to private”, adding: “I prefer the older forms, like a firing squad, as opposed to attempts to ‘medicalize’ it, as with the recent botched execution by injection in Tennessee.”

He did stipulate that “the Pentagon has the responsibility to head off ghoulish behavior by some means”, but admitted: “That will be challenging with a live stream.”

Wilson wrote that he had not spoken to Hegseth nor anyone in his department about the issue.

Wilson and his religious allies are at odds with some other religious leaders, including Pope Leo and the archbishop to the US military, Timothy Broglio, both of whom have condemned Hegseth’s plans.

Wow, that is... quite the read. Just some of those words placed next to other words feel so implausibly absurd and yet you are reading nonfiction about what is happening in real time.