Pete Hegseth quotes ‘Pulp Fiction’ instead of Bible verse at Pentagon sermon
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has appeared to quote a fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction instead of the actual Bible, during a religious service being held at the Pentagon.
Viewers of the sermon, which took place on April 15th, were left somewhat confused when the government official began reciting a prayer taken from the verse Ezekiel 25:17, which was named in this context as “CSAR 25:17” to reflect the acronym Combat Search and Rescue.
This was due to the fact that Hegseth told the audience that the prayer was said at the start of the Sandy 1 mission at the beginning of this month, in which downed pilots were brought back after being stranded in Iran.
Urging the crowd to recite the prayer with him, Hegseth began: “The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides,” which is remarkably similar to the fake verse recited by Samuel L Jackson’s character Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction.
The altered scripture of Ezekiel 25:17 is recited by Jackson before murdering a character in the Quentin Tarantino 1994 epic, where he says: “The path of 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.”
The character adds, “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 you,” reflecting the words of the sermon Hegseth delivered.
The real Bible verse of Ezekiel 25:17 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.”
It is not the first time that a member of Donald Trump’s government has got their words in a speech mixed up with a film script, as during his first term in 2017, the president gave a speech that reflected Elle Woods’ words at the end of Legally Blonde.
At the time, Trump said: “As long as you have pride in your beliefs, courage in your convictions and faith in your god, then you will not fail … Most importantly, you have to do what you love.”
Meanwhile, in the Reese Witherspoon rom-com, the graduation speech from the central character contained a section that said: “It is with passion, courage of conviction and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world… You must always have faith in people, and most importantly you must always have faith in yourself.”
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