Viewers watching Hegseth’s sermon during a Pentagon worship service on Wednesday were left scratching their heads and questioning whether he had just quoted Samuel L. Jackson’s famous monologue.
While discussing the Sandy 1 rescue mission, which brought back downed pilots stranded in Iran earlier this month, Hegseth urged his audience to join him in a prayer that he said was delivered at the start of the mission.
Hegseth said the prayer, “CSAR 25:17,” which stands for “Combat Search and Rescue,” is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17. He then urged his audience to pray with him.
“The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil man. Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children,” he said.
“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.”
The actual Ezekiel 25:17 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.”
Instead of the scripture Hegseth mentioned, his prayer appears to mirror the fictional Ezekiel 25:17 that Samuel L Jackson’s character, Jules Winnfield, delivered before killing a character in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
“There’s a passage I got memorized, seems appropriate for this situation: Ezekiel 25:17,” Jackson’s character said.
“The path of 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 Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”
The UK Independent has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
Hegseth did not say during his speech how the prayer was relayed to him by the rescue team. However, the sermon caught the attention of social media users who called the Defense Secretary out on the fake Bible passage.
“Wow this is embarassing!” one X user remarked.
“Calling for peace is un-Christian, but Hegseth praying from Pulp Fiction is fine,” an X user added.
“All these Republican clowns cosplay as Christians. It’s so aggravating,” another X user chimed in.
