WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, leading a Pentagon prayer meeting, quoted a fictional bible verse taken from a violent monologue in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s 1994 film \u201cPulp Fiction,\u201d originally delivered by actor Samuel L. Jackson just before his character shoots a helpless man to death.<\/p>\n
The secretary used the prayer<\/a> to frame the war in Iran as an act of divine justice, the same justification Jackson\u2019s character cites in the film before pulling the trigger<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hegseth told the audience at a monthly Pentagon worship service held Wednesday that he learned the prayer from the lead mission planner of a team called \u201cSandy 1,\u201d which recently rescued<\/a> downed Air Force crew members in Iran.<\/p>\n Hegseth said the verse is frequently spoken by combat search-and-rescue crews, who call the prayer \u201cCSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17\u201d from the Bible.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother,\u201d Hegseth recited. \u201cAnd you will know my call sign is Sandy 1, when I lay my vengeance upon thee.\u201d <\/p>\n The infamous Ezekiel 25:17 speech from \u201cPulp Fiction\u201d is almost entirely a screenwriter\u2019s creation; only the final refrain is loosely inspired by the actual biblical verse. The majority of the monologue in Tarantino\u2019s film is adapted from the opening of the 1976 Japanese martial arts film \u201cThe Bodyguard,\u201d with action star Sonny Chiba. <\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s minute-long prayer closely followed those scripts, with only the last two lines resembling language from the Bible. In Hegseth\u2019s version, he replaced \u201cand they shall know that I am the Lord,\u201d from the book of Ezekiel with the call sign for a U.S. A-10 Warthog aircraft.<\/p>\n Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said some outlets accused Hegseth of mistaking Jackson\u2019s Golden Globe-winning performance with actual scripture, and called that narrative \u201cfake news.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cSecretary 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,\u201d Parnell wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cHowever, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n