# Pete Hegseth — Fake "Ezekiel 25:17" at Pentagon Prayer Service > [!quote] "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." > — Pete Hegseth, Pentagon worship service, April 15, 2026 > > Hegseth introduced the passage by referencing the "Sandy 1" Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission in Iran: "They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17." ## Context During a Pentagon worship service on April 15, 2026 — services that Hegseth himself introduced after being confirmed as Secretary of Defense — Hegseth read what he presented as a military adaptation of Ezekiel 25:17. The passage was, nearly word-for-word, the monologue delivered by Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino's *Pulp Fiction* (1994) — a speech Jules recites immediately before executing a man. The fake verse has a layered provenance of appropriation. Tarantino lifted it from the 1973 Japanese martial arts film *Bodyguard Kiba* (Sonny Chiba), which had fabricated the passage and misattributed it to Ezekiel. The actual Ezekiel 25:17 reads: "I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I take vengeance on them." The Tarantino version is substantially longer and almost entirely invented. In Hegseth's Pentagon version, the passage was further adapted with military language — "Sandy One" replacing "the Lord," "downed aviator" replacing "lost children," "camaraderie and duty" replacing "charity and good will." Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell acknowledged the prayer was "obviously inspired by dialogue in *Pulp Fiction*" but maintained that both the prayer and the film dialogue were reflections of the actual Ezekiel 25:17 — a claim that is factually incorrect, as most of the passage does not appear in any Bible translation. ## Why This Matters **1. The aesthetic of faith without the substance.** The Secretary of Defense who introduced Pentagon worship services, who positioned himself as a Christian warrior, who is documented in this vault as an ally of [[Douglas Wilson]] and the [[CREC]] network, could not distinguish a Quentin Tarantino screenplay from the text he claims to govern by. This is the [[Erving Goffman Self-Presentation Theory]] front-stage performance at its most revealing: the performance of piety as political identity, detached from the actual content of the faith being performed. **2. The violence is the point.** Of all the passages in the Bible, the one Hegseth chose to (mis)quote is a vengeance passage — and not even a real one, but a Hollywood version specifically designed to sound maximally threatening before a murder. The selection reveals what "Christian warrior" actually means in this context: not the Sermon on the Mount, not the Beatitudes, not "love your enemies," but the aesthetic of righteous violence. The passage was read in the context of the Iran war, framing U.S. military action as divine vengeance. **3. The Pentagon defended it.** Parnell's response — acknowledging the *Pulp Fiction* origin while claiming it reflected the real Ezekiel — represents the institutional absorption of performative Christianity. The Department of Defense did not distance itself from a fake Bible verse read at an official prayer service; it rationalized it. The institution has been reshaped to accommodate the performance. **4. The timing.** This occurred the same week [[JD Vance]] lectured [[Pope Leo XIV]] on just war theory at a TPUSA rally. Two senior administration officials — the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense — simultaneously performed Christian authority while demonstrating that their relationship to Christian teaching is instrumental rather than substantive. Vance overrode the pope; Hegseth couldn't distinguish the Bible from a hitman movie. ## Verification - Pentagon worship service: April 15, 2026. Video widely circulated. - First reported by a Baptist News Global journalist; subsequently covered by Variety, The Hill, Hollywood Reporter, Snopes, Daily Beast, Military.com, and others. - Snopes verified: the passage read by Hegseth matches the *Pulp Fiction* screenplay, not any Bible translation. - Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the *Pulp Fiction* origin while defending the prayer. - *Pulp Fiction* (1994): Jules Winnfield's Ezekiel 25:17 monologue, written by Quentin Tarantino, adapted from *Bodyguard Kiba* (1973). ## Related Quotes - [[JD Vance - stick to matters of morality]] — Same week: the VP lecturing the pope on Catholic theology he converted to seven years ago - _(potential future additions: Hegseth's statements on Pentagon worship services, Christian warrior framing)_ ## Part of Collections - Featured in [[Christian Nationalism in Government]] — the movement-to-governance pattern collection. - Featured in [[Politics as Holy War]] — scripture braided into Pentagon force rhetoric.