Vice President JD Vance swears in Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense as his wife Jennifer Rauchet holds the Bible and Hegseth's son watches in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025.Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth quoted a violent and fictional Bible passage nearly word-for-word from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in his Wednesday night worship service at the Pentagon.
In the film, Samuel L. Jackson’s hitman character Jules Winnfield recites the Bible passage just before he and his partner shoot and kill their boss’ unarmed business partner. Jackson’s monologue frames Winnfield’s violence as a “righteous” vengeance.
Hegseth told attendees that the prayer was recited by one of the teams involved in the combat search and rescue mission to save the two Air Force crew members shot down in Iran earlier this month, an uncited borrowing from the film first covered Wednesday by the newsletter A Public Witness.
“They call it CSAR 25:17,” Hegseth said, where CSAR stands for “Combat Search and Rescue”. The Biblical citation 25:17 is associated with Ezekiel 25:17, the Bible passage the Pulp Fiction monologue is based on.
Here’s what Hegseth recited in full on Wednesday:
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 the 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.
The passage appears to be a thinly veiled threat of continued violence against Iran, especially as Vance told the audience how “the Lord’s word” will influence future military decisions, such as the US blockade on Iranian ports in retaliation to Iran refusing to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
As my colleague Kiera Butler highlighted when President Donald Trump nominated Hegseth for secretary of defense in November 2024, Hegseth published a book in 2020, American Crusade, which considered the destruction of Muslim holy sites to reclaim them for Christianity. He also has tattoos that signify the Christian crusades.
And as I wrote last month, throughout his time in office, Hegseth has explicitly incorporated religion into his work at the Pentagon, hosting monthly evangelical worship services and inviting clergy members from his Christian denomination to preach.
In response to a request for comment, the Defense Department emailed a link to a post on X by its chief spokesperson Sean Parnell acknowledging that Hegseth was “obviously inspired” by Pulp Fiction.
Update, April 16: This article has been updated to include comment from the Department of Defense and to cite A Public Witness, the outlet that first noted Hegseth’s remarks.
