Overview
- At a Pentagon worship service Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recited a “CSAR 25:17” prayer he linked to a Sandy-1 Combat Search and Rescue mission for a downed U.S. airman in Iran.
- The language closely matched Samuel L. Jackson’s famous Pulp Fiction monologue labeled as Ezekiel 25:17, though the real biblical verse is much shorter and different.
- Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday the reading was a custom CSAR prayer inspired by the movie and dismissed claims Hegseth misquoted scripture as “fake news.”
- A Public Witness first flagged the overlap, and film historians note Tarantino adapted the speech from the 1973 Japanese film Bodyguard Kiba that also misattributed it to Ezekiel.
- The episode adds to disputes over religion in official settings, with lawsuits seeking records of the services and Hegseth later comparing critical reporters to Pharisees at a press briefing.