Trump, the pope and the gospel of 'Pulp Fiction'

It is hardly surprising that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's explicitly Christian monthly worship services in the Pentagon have raised alarm in some quarters about the separation of church and state.

- Clarence Page Tribune Content Agency

Pope Leo XIV presides over the Prayer Vigil for Peace at St. Peter's Basilica, on April 11, 2026, in Vatican City.

But who expected to find him quoting lines of alleged scripture that were lifted from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 cult classic "Pulp Fiction”?

The flap begins with a prayer.

At an April 15 worship service, Hegseth recited a prayer he said was sent to him by the lead mission planner of “Sandy One,” of the Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission in Iran that saved a downed U.S. airman earlier this month.

“Blessed is he who in the name of camaraderie and duty shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness,” Hegseth read in part, “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,” he continued, “and you will know my call sign is Sandy One when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen.”

Sound familiar, film buffs? Jules Winnfield, the hitman played by Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction,” recites a similar modified version of Ezekiel 25:17 before fatally shooting another man.

The actual biblical passage 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.”

I can see why the Ezekiel passage excited Hegseth, an Evangelical Christian who proudly embraces a militant Christian Nationalism and views the war that President Trump calls an “excursion” in Iran as part of an apocalyptic showdown between good and evil.