The Pentagon offered a defense of Pete Hegseth‘s recitation of a prayer that resembled a fake Bible verse used by Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, while pushing back on the idea that the defense secretary was misquoting the actual passage.
On Wednesday, Hegseth asked an audience to join him in prayer as he marked the rescue of a downed airman in Iran earlier this month.
Hegseth explained that the prayer was recited at the start of the combat search and rescue mission.
Hegseth said, “They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17, so the prayer is CSAR 25:17, and it reads, and pray with me, please, ‘The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherd the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother. And you will know My call sign is Sandy 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen.”
A Public Witness, a site that reports on faith and politics, noted the similarities that the passage had to a violent scene in Pulp Fiction. Before shooting a man, Jackson’s character says, “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children, and I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the law when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”
The King James version of Ezekiel 25:17 actually reads, “And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.”
Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged the similarities in a post on X on Thursday, while defending Hegseth for using the quote.
Parnell wrote, “Secretary Hegseth on Wednesday shared a custom prayer, referenced as the CSAR prayer, used by the brave warfighters of Sandy-1 who led the daylight rescue mission of Dude 44 Alpha out of Iran, which was obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction. However, both the CSAR prayer and the dialogue in Pulp Fiction were reflections of the verse Ezekiel 25:17, as Secretary Hegseth clearly said in his remarks at the prayer service. Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality.”
