By Scott Ortkiese
so@throughlinesynthesis.com | www.throughlinesynthesis.com
On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presided over one of his now-routine Christian worship services at the Pentagon and delivered a prayer that was not from the Bible but rather the Quentin Tarantino screenplay for Pulp Fiction. Specifically, it was the monologue delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s hitman character Jules Winnfield just before he shoots someone to death.
Hegseth framed it as a tribute to the “Sandy 1” Combat Search and Rescue team that retrieved downed Air Force pilots from Iran, calling it “CSAR 25:17” and noting it was “intended to echo Ezekiel 25:17.” He then solemnly recited: “The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherd the lost through the valley of darkness… 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.”
The actual Ezekiel 25:17 says only: “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.” Everything else, including the “finder of lost children,” the “valley of darkness,” and the entire opening passage about the “iniquities of the selfish,” was written by Tarantino and Roger Avary for a 1994 Hollywood film about drug dealers and hitmen.
There is a rich additional layer of sanctimonious imbecility on Hegseth’s part: even in Pulp Fiction, Jules, the hitman, acknowledges the verse is not right, calling it “a cold-blooded thing to say to a m, f, before you pop a cap in him.” Wink, wink, nod, a Pentagon stooge, Sean Parnell, actually defended Hegseth, claiming Hegseth’s blunder was “clearly inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction” while insisting it was still a legitimate prayer tradition. The Reddit post flagging it garnered over 22,000 upvotes within hours.
The Secretary of Defense of the United States, running a mandatory prayer service at the Pentagon during an active war, read a hitman’s pre-execution monologue from a Tarantino film as Holy Scripture. That is not satire. That is the news. I sh_t you not.
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