Former Fox News weekend host-turned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urged his audience at the Pentagon to join with him in a solemn prayer last Wednesday which Hegseth claimed was delivered at the beginning of the Sandy 1 mission to rescue the downed fighter pilots in Iran. But Hegseth’s “prayer” was fake. It mimicked almost word for word a fake version of Ezekiel 25:17 quoted by actor Samuel L. Jackson in Quentin Tarantino’s ultra-violent 1994 crime movie Pulp Fiction, just before Jackson’s character violently and cruelly shoots a man to death.
Hegseth told the audience,
“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 inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. 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. 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.’ ”
Ezekiel 25:17 in the King James Bible 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…”
Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction, Jules Winnfield, said to his victim,
“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 Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”
Here is the clip from Pulp Fiction where Samuel L. Jackson recites Hegseth’s fake “prayer” and then shoots his victim. (Caution: violence):
Even more important that Hegseth BS-ing his audience, the Secretary of Defense hosting Christian religious services monthly at the Pentagon led the nonprofit group Americans United for Separation of Church and State to file a lawsuit claiming Hegseth’s hosting of Christian prayer services at the Pentagon violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government from favoring one religion over others.