Literally Misreading the Bible

“Public executions are Biblical. Therefore, public executions are good. Therefore, we should bring back public executions.”

That’s how Calvinist podcaster Joshua Haymes this week explained his call for holding public executions. Haymes has been a pastoral intern at Pilgrim Hill Reformed Church in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, near Nashville. That church, which Pete Hegseth attended before becoming U.S. Secretary of Defense, is part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches founded by self-described “paleo-Confederate” Idaho pastor Doug Wilson.

Haymes made his comment on the Reformation Red Pill podcast he cohosts with Brooks Potteiger, the lead pastor of Pilgrim Hill. In May, Potteiger preached during a worship service Hegseth held at the Pentagon during work hours. Hegseth introduced the pastor as a longtime “mentor.” And just last week, Hegseth sparked controversy by posting affirmation of a video in which Wilson pushed Christian Nationalism, argued women should not be allowed to vote, said that “women are the kind of people that people come out of,” and defended slavery.

Screengrab of Pete Hegseth (left) talking with Joshua Haymes during a Feb. 24, 2024, episode of Reformation Red Pill.

So as much as we might want to dismiss Haymes as a fringe voice, he has the ear of influential people — with Hegseth even appearing on his podcast. And he has a large following with more than 34,000 followers on Elon Musk’s X platform. Nor is his call for public executions as “biblical” a one-off statement. He’s been making that case repeatedly for months.

But as much as Haymes wants to call his argument one of just following Scripture, his claims quickly fall apart. It turns out that not everything in the Bible is good and something we just emulate. So this issue of A Public Witness looks at how one Calvinist voice is publicly doing violence to Scripture to justify unChristlike behavior.

Casting Stones