Pete Hegseth Recites Biblical &x27;Prayer&x27; That&x27;s Actually a “Pulp Fiction” Quote Meredith KileThu, April 16, 2026 at 5:32 PM UTC 0 Pete Hegseth; Samuel L. Jackson from 'Pulp Fiction'Credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty; Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo During a recent worship service at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recounted a "prayer" that a U.S. soldier shared with him However, the full text of the quote that Hegseth recited mimicked a famous monologue from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction In the film, Samuel L.
Pete Hegseth Recites Biblical 'Prayer' That's Actually a “Pulp Fiction” Quote
Meredith KileThu, April 16, 2026 at 5:32 PM UTC
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Pete Hegseth; Samuel L. Jackson from 'Pulp Fiction'Credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty; Moviestore Collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo -
During a recent worship service at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recounted a "prayer" that a U.S. soldier shared with him
However, the full text of the quote that Hegseth recited mimicked a famous monologue from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction
In the film, Samuel L. Jackson famously recites "Ezekiel 25:17" before killing a man, but only a portion of what his character says is from the real Bible verse
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth raised some eyebrows this week when he recited a prayer that sounded more like a popular movie quote.
On Wednesday, April 15, Hegseth was giving a sermon at one of his now-regular Pentagon prayer services when he recounted a prayer that he'd been told by the lead planner of a Combat Search and Rescue operation that recently saved two Air Force crew members shot down over Iran.
"They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17," Hegseth said.
"The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men," he recited. "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 One when I lay my vengeance upon thee, and amen."
The final line of the prayer is, in fact, a reference to Ezekiel 25:17; however, the full text of what Hegseth read more closely resembled an iconic monologue given by Samuel L. Jackson's character, Jules Winnfield, in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.
Before killing Brett, a dishonest business associate of his boss, Jules asks if he reads the Bible. When Brett answers in the affirmative, Jules tells him, "Well, there's this passage I got memorized, sort of fits the occasion: Ezekiel 25:17."
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men," Jules says in the movie. "Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and goodwill, 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 Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
In reality, only the final line of Jules' quote is from Ezekiel 25:17, though most modern translations of the Bible say "And you will know I am the Lord" rather than "my name is the Lord."
Quentin Tarantino, the writer-director of Pulp Fiction, adapted Jules' monologue from yet another movie, a 1973 Japanese martial arts film starring Sonny Chiba called Karate Kiba, or The Bodyguard. The word-for-word text of Jules' speech appears as an opening crawl in The Bodyguard, and is also cited as "Ezekiel 25:17."
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PEOPLE has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.
The following day, during a press briefing, Hegseth invoked religion again, comparing critical members of the media to the Pharisees, an influential Jewish sect during the time of the New Testament who are often simplistically portrayed in Christianity as antagonists to Jesus.
“This past Sunday, I was sitting in church with my family, and our minister preached from the Book of Mark, the third chapter, and in the passage, Jesus entered a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees came to watch,” Hegseth started. “As the scripture reads, they came to see whether he, Jesus, would heal him, or he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.”
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“You see, the Pharisees, the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time, they were there to witness, to write everything down, to report, but their hearts were hardened, even though they witnessed a literal miracle. It didn’t matter. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda,” he continued.
“I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees, not all of you, not all of you, but the legacy Trump-hating press,” Hegseth told reporters.
Last month, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a religious freedom advocacy organization, filed lawsuits against the Department of Defense and Department of Labor as part of the investigation into government worship services being held during the second Trump administration.
“The federal government’s role is to serve the public, not to proselytize,” Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser said in a statement shared with Military.com. “Secretaries Hegseth and Chavez-DeRemer are abusing the power of their government positions and taxpayer-funded resources to impose their preferred religion on federal workers."
“Even if these prayer services are presented as voluntary, there is pressure on federal employees to attend in order to appease their bosses," the statement continued, "especially since these services occur amidst the Trump administration’s campaign to punish anyone who doesn’t comply with its Christian nationalist agenda.”
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Source: Entertainment
Published: April 16, 2026 at 08:46PM on Source: RON MAG
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