donald trumpIsrael’s administration has no plans to stop intimidating its critics with an incorrect and sacrilegious invocation of biblical teachings. On Thursday morning, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered a long diatribe thinly disguised as a sermon in which he quoted false scriptures from the Quentin Tarantino movie pulp fiction, and then reviewed the press on biblical bases during a press conference, comparing the president to Jesus.
Hegseth, who for weeks has been invoking Christian scriptures to justify the administration’s disastrous war against Iran, hosted his usual worship service and sermon at the Pentagon on Wednesday. During his speech, he cited a violent monologue delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jules Winnfield, in Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar-winning film. pulp fictionbefore he kills someone. The speech loosely quotes Ezekiel 25:17, cutting out the previous verses from Ezekiel 25 and replacing them with an original monologue written for the film.
Hegseth presented the famous quote as a prayer, claiming it had been recited by members of the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) team that recovered a downed pilot from Iran earlier this month.
“They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is intended to reflect Ezekiel 25:17,” he said, inviting the audience to pray with him.
“The path of the fallen aviator is marked on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of fellowship and duty, shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children,” he recited. “I will attack you with great vengeance and furious anger against those who would try to capture and destroy my brother. And you will know that my call sign is Sandy 1 when I take revenge on you, and amen.”
It is practically word for word the monologue delivered by Jackson in pulp fictionwhich appears three times in the film and is supposed to literally chart the path of the film’s tyrannical men, including the violent Jules, as they come to terms with their own nihilism and violence and attempt to find redemption.
It does not appear that Hegseth knew he was quoting a film, and if he did, he simply refused to acknowledge the famous film scene to his audience. Nor was it the only time this week that the defense secretary used a vague reading of Scripture to propagandize for war.
During a news conference Thursday, Hegseth compared members of the Pentagon press corps to the Pharisees, a Jewish social movement in the Second Temple era that would eventually give rise to rabbinic Judaism. In the biblical New Testament, the Pharisees clash with Jesus of Nazareth after watching him forgive the sins of a paralytic, accusing him of blasphemy for usurping God’s exclusive authority to absolve. Jesus then demonstrates his connection to God by healing the man of his paralysis. Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees were often used as a biblical vehicle to explain his deviations from adherence to traditional Jewish religious laws and customs.
“I can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage that you can’t resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops,” Hegseth complained. He went on to describe the Sunday sermon given at his church in which the minister spoke of the Pharisees.
“You see, the Pharisees, the so-called self-proclaimed elites of their time… even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter. They were just there to explain goodness in pursuit of their agenda,” he continued. “I sat in church and thought, ‘Our press is like these Pharisees, not all of you, but the Trump-hating legacy press.”
“Their politically motivated animosity toward President Trump almost completely blinds them to the brilliance of our American warriors. The Pharisees examined every good act to find a violation, looking only for the negative. The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn. I would ask them to open their eyes to the goodness, the historic success of our troops, the courage of this president and this historic moment for a deal that could end the Iranian nuclear threat, the incredible victory on the battlefield. before your eyes.”
In this scenario, Trump and his administration presumably represent Jesus, and the press represents… the supposedly fastidious Jews who denounced what they considered a form of blasphemy? Hegseth didn’t dwell too much on the finer points of the analogy, probably because it’s still a sore point given that Trump was widely condemned this week for comparing to Jesus Christ in a Truth Social post.
Hegseth’s comments generated even more attention in light of the administration’s decision ongoing dispute with Pope Leo XIVwho condemned the war in Iran and argued directly with Trump about his threats to commit crimes against humanity if Iran does not surrender to him.
Leo seems to continue paying close attention to the administration’s statements in defense of the war. Shortly after Hegseth’s press conference, Leo wrote on social media: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political benefit, dragging the sacred into darkness and filth.”
