First it was anonymous attacks on his personal life. Then it was a manufactured “controversy” about his Christian tattoos. And now, the desperate corporate media are using the movie Pulp Fiction to go after War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The ridiculous hit job kicked into high gear on Thursday after numerous outlets and their Democrat allies began regurgitating the same narrative. That is, while speaking at a Pentagon prayer service, Hegseth quoted a “fake Bible verse” made famous by Samuel L. Jackson’s character in the 1990’s hit movie.
“Pete Hegseth Quotes ‘Pulp Fiction’ Fake Bible Verse at Pentagon Prayer Service,” a Variety article blared. One Deadline headline read, “Pete Hegseth Roasted By Gavin Newsom & Others Over ‘Pulp Fiction’ Prayer Debacle,” while another by People magazine reads, “Pete Hegseth Recites Biblical ‘Prayer’ That’s Actually a Pulp Fiction Quote.”
The media’s implication, of course, is that Hegseth and his team stupidly mistook a movie quote for an actual Bible verse. But what’s fairly obvious is that the deceptive framing profited by these so-called “defenders of democracy” isn’t remotely accurate.
One selectively edited clip of Hegseth’s speech circulating on social media only shows part of the war secretary’s remarks, in which he recited the prayer in question. The secretary said:
The prayer is CSAR 25:17 and it reads and pray with me please: “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, 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 capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy-1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee, and Amen.”
The clip shows a side-by-side video of Sam Jackson’s character delivering a similar quote in Pulp Fiction, in which he said:
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.
The Pulp Fiction quote was padded from the Bible verse Ezekiel 25:17, which 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.”
On the surface, the secretary’s remarks are certainly similar to the Pulp Fiction quote. But upon watching his full remarks leading up to the quoted prayer, however, viewers discover that Hegseth was never under the impression that it was an actual prayer from the Bible.
Addressing attendees during Wednesday’s service, Hegseth said that he was handed the prayer days prior from a “lead mission planner of Sandy-1,” an Air Force combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) unit that helped rescue a downed pilot in Iran earlier this month. The secretary noted that the prayer “was recited by Sandy-1, which is one of the Sandies, to all Sandies, all those A-10 crews prior to all CSAR missions, but especially this CSAR mission that happened in real time.”
It’s the next part of Hegseth’s remarks that leftists have conveniently chosen to ignore.
“They call it CSAR 25:17,” Hegseth said with a laugh, “which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17” (emphasis added).
So, to summarize, Hegseth recited a combat search-and-rescue team’s prayer, which is a riff off a Pulp Fiction quote, which is a riff off an actual Bible verse. And Hegseth acknowledged that the quoted prayer was not an actual Bible verse.
Gee, what a scandal!
While it’s easy to mock the media and other Democrats for the lengths they go to try and gin up “controversy” about Hegseth, the truth is that it wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t used the aforementioned prayer at all. These leftist actors would still have attacked him for holding a prayer service to begin with.
How do we know this?
Because many of these same hacks have already attempted to foment a “constitutional crisis” about such prayer services; attacked the secretary for his Christian faith; and falsely smeared one of his Christian tattoos as a symbol of “white supremacy.” When it comes to slandering Christians and their beliefs, the left is there to lead the charge.
This latest nothingburger won’t be the last that left-wing propagandists hurl at the secretary of war or anyone else in the administration. Which just further underscores a fundamental truth — that there is no amount of lies they won’t tell to destroy their political enemies for power.
