That Viral ‘Pulp Fiction’ Prayer Story
“If you look at the foreign coverage of this, it is in every part of the globe,” MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace declared on Friday evening. “It has saturated the entertainment press here and around the world. It is a story that has spun around the globe faster than any story about Donald Trump that I’ve covered since the start of the war with Iran.”
What story was she talking about? Pete Hegseth saying a prayer that was drawn from a scene in Pulp Fiction. And she wasn’t exaggerating. That story really did go viral in the United States and elsewhere. And it all started with A Public Witness.
We broke the news of the Pentagon worship service and Hegseth’s unusual prayer on Wednesday afternoon. Our report quickly started getting attention on social media. No other reporter watched and wrote about the service that day. Two other outlets — New York Magazine and a popular TV news program in Australia — covered the prayer on Wednesday, but both cited us as first reporting it.
Then on Thursday morning, the story continued to grow on social media and spilled into dispatches from news outlets and entertainment media. Among the numerous sources that credited us for discovering the prayer’s movie language are Variety, USA Today, Rolling Stone, BET, The Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Forbes, The Daily Beast, Deadline, Mediaite, and the A.V. Club. As the news spread, other outlets also mentioned it, including People, Hollywood Reporter, New York Post, Washington Times, and Al Jazeera.
On Thursday night, comedian Stephen Colbert roasted Hegseth for the prayer. After splicing together clips of Hegseth praying with Samuel L. Jackson’s monologue, Colbert quipped, “Wow. That mashup really feels like your self-tape versus the guy who actually got the part.” Colbert also then gave a satirical prayer filled with movie lines from Taxi Driver, Forrest Gump, Snakes on a Plane, and Babe.
Others have also enjoyed the opportunity to crack jokes at Hegseth’s expense. During the Inside the NBA halftime show for Sunday’s game between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers, the topic of attending church was briefly mentioned. Charles Barkley quipped in response: “Hey, we’re not going to listen to the pope anymore. We’re going to listen to Sam Jackson and Pulp Fiction.”
U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff of California joked about it, saying, “Hegseth loves telling fictions, even Pulp Fiction.” And actor Mark Hamill mused about the controversy on Bluesky: “We are living in a timeline so dumb it’s exhausting.” Additionally, several political cartoonists have already featured the incident, including John Darkow, Matt Davies, Clay Jones, and Drew Sheneman.
RT, the state-owned Russian media network, used the news to mock Hegseth, including with a video where they superimposed his head on top of Samuel L. Jackson’s in that scene. But RT didn’t credit us, so thanks for nothing, Putin! Hegseth was also mocked by the creators of the Iranian propaganda videos attacking the Trump administration with Lego-style animation (somehow that’s a real sentence). One such video, captioned with “Pay attention to the sermons Pete Fiction,” shows a Lego Hegseth reading a Bible in church. But then the camera pans around to show that he’s actually watching Pulp Fiction on his cell phone that’s tucked inside his Bible.
And, of course, this story sparked numerous memes flying around on social media. The press office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared a remade Pulp Fiction movie poster with Hegseth replacing Uma Thurman. Other memes include a recreated version of the AI-Trump-as-Jesus image or doctored images with other “verses” from Hegseth, as well as people sharing images from Pulp Fiction with captions like “This is my favorite scene from the Bible.” And numerous TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram influencers made videos reacting to the news.
As attention to the prayer grew, the Pentagon both affirmed that it happened and also tried to criticize the media. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Thursday acknowledged the prayer “was obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction.” However, Parnell then tried to insinuate that both the prayer and the dialogue “were reflections of the verse Ezekiel 25:17, as Secretary Hegseth clearly said in his remarks at the prayer service. Anyone saying the Secretary misquoted Ezekiel 25:17 is peddling fake news and ignorant of reality.” As noted in the original A Public Witness report, the movie dialogue does borrow some from that verse, but also misquotes it — and the prayer read by Hegseth misquotes it even more by changing the person promising “vengeance” from being God to the commander of the U.S. military mission.
Some rightwing pundits also tried to attack the media for mentioning Hegseth’s Pulp Fiction prayer. Glenn Beck, for instance, offered two big whoppers in his defense of Hegseth. Beck claimed Hegseth said he was “badly paraphrasing Ezekiel,” but “the media cuts that out.” That’s simply not true; Hegseth did not say that. Then Beck added that this story was first pushed by Russian and Turkish propaganda social media accounts. But that’s false. A Public Witness reported on this more than 14 hours before either the Russian or Turkish propaganda sites he claimed started this. And, for the record, we’ve not received money from either the Russian or Turkish governments (it’s not like we’re Eric Adamas or Michael Flynn). When propagandists like Beck don’t like the news, they make stuff up. As one of the prophets warned, “You can’t handle the truth!”
Watching this story blow up from A Public Witness to global news, late night jokes, and more has been tremendously fun. And it shows the impact and importance of this newsletter. Without us tracking the monthly worship services at the Pentagon, this moment might have been completely missed. After all, like most months, no one else watched and immediately reported on the service. We are finding stories no one else is covering, and we are changing the national (and global) conversations about religion and politics.
But we cannot do this important reporting without the support of our paid subscribers and donors. Thanks to all the paid subscribers of A Public Witness for helping make this possible. Enjoy this moment you helped spark! And if you’re not yet a paid subscriber, upgrade today to help us continue our award-winning (and Colbert-inspiring) journalism!
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor & Jeremy Fuzy
I shared your scripture-tagged Hegseth prayer from the previous prayer meeting on my Substack article on Thoughts From a Lifelong Georgian. “Going to the (Pentagon) Chapel.” I did attribute to Brian. My SubStack is a combination of personal reflection and theological reflection on politics. I am an ordained Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister.
Brian & Jeremy: As always a great piece on a timely topic. I have enjoyed all of the television coverage by those in the media, most of whom couldn't find the book of Ezekiel, and would have to go to the listing of the books in the front of Bibles to locate the page for it. As an old, former Southern Baptist "Bible Driller", I have still retained most all of my knowledge of where the books of the OT (Tanakh) and the NT (Christian Texts) are located in order. More importantly, what all of the coverage has missed is the other big fool, super idiot, that Hegseth is when it comes to his understanding of the Bible. In Bible Study - Context, Context, Context - it is a pathetic attempt at scholarship when anyone like the Secretary of Defense yanks a text or part of a text out of its context and attempts to devise a general theological principle. The Context of Ezekiel 25:15-17 is the God of the Children of Israel pronouncing His judgemetn upon the Philistines and Cherethites. It has absolutely nothing, like all of the rest of the Tanakh, to do with the United States of America waging war against Iran or any other country. This is the simple fact!!! I understand that Christian Nationalists can only read the Hebrew Scriptures through the distorted, perverted, and illogical lens of Christian Nationalism. However, it would have been good if some folks with a national platform and the correct understanding of the truth of Ezekiel 25:17 had provided a simple exegesis of the text. Keep Up Your Good Work addressing the dangerous idiots in our land!!