The Trump Tanakh—That Is, the Law, the Prophets, & the Writings—Was Written by Quentin Tarantino "Pulp Fiction" Character Jules Winfield
Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” becomes Holy Scripture in Trumpist civil religion: the astonishing war prayers of DefSec Peter Hegseth rewrite God in the image of a sadistic pulp-movie thug. The real Ezekiel 25 is about how nobody’s aggressive violence escapes divine judgment. Hegseth’s CSAR 2517 is about how American violence is itself the Divine judgment—and that is about as anti‑Christian as you can get…
The work DefSec Peter Hegseth regards as Holy Scripture:
Quentin Tarantino: “Pulp Fiction” Screenplay <https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/pulp_fiction.html>:
JULES: Now describe to me what Marsellus Wallace looks like!
Brett does his best. BRETT: Well he’s… he’s… black—
JULES: —go on!
BRETT: …and he’s… he’s… bald—
JULES: —does he look like a bitch?!
BRETT (without thinking): What?
Jules’ eyes go to Vincent, Vincent smirks, Jules rolls his eyes and SHOOTS Brett in the shoulder. Brett SCREAMS, breaking into a SHAKING/TREMBLING SPASM in the chair. JULES: Does-he-look-like-a-bitch?!
BRETT (in agony): No.
JULES: Then why did you try to fuck ‘im like a bitch?!
BRETT (in spasm): I didn’t.
Now in a lower voice. JULES: Yes ya did, Brett. Ya tried ta fuck ‘im. You ever read the Bible, Brett?
BRETT (in spasm): Yes.
JULES: There’s a passage I got memorized, seems appropriate for this situation: Ezekiel 25:17. “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 you.”
The two men EMPTY their guns at the same time on the sitting Brett…
The actual Ezekiel 25:17 (KJV) <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%2025&version=KJV> is:
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…
At the Pentagon, DefSec Peter Hegseth led the congregation in saying this, that he said was called “CSAR 2517”, for “Combat Search And Rescue [Ezekiel ]25:17:”
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… <https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/hegseth-borrows-violent-prayer-from>
As seamusmcduffs says <https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1smo7ah/pete_hegseth_quotes_fake_pulp_fiction_bible_verse/>: ‘I would say if you’re version of Christianity feels in line with a fake verse from “Pulp Fiction”, you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere…’
The context of Ezekiel 25 is that Ezekiel is writing from Babylon, to which he has been carried as an exiled prisoner after -586 when Babylonian Emperor Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur had dealt with the rebelling King Zidkiyahu by destroying the Kingdom of Judah, leveling its capital of Jerusalem, scattering the population, and carrying at least its élite into the Babylonian captivity. The Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines had joined Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur’s punitive suppression of the Judahite rebellion. And so Ezekiel is reassuring his audience that they will, at God’s hand and in God’s time, be properly punished for this. Ezekiel is much more “nobody’s aggressive violence will escape divine judgment in the end”, and not “we are powerful righteous winners whose violence is itself the divine judgment”.
I mean: what is supposed to say about this? Quentin Tarantino makes very good, very violent, very cathartic movies. But he is not the voice of God. And he is in no sense a preacher of the Gospel. And there is great confusion in what Hegseth said toward its end: Is Hegseth really saying that God’s call sign is “Sandy 1”? Is Hegseth saying that the US military is God, or at least the Bearer of the Divine Name, executing the great vengeance and furious anger of the Divinity?
Quentin Tarantino wrote a brilliantly stylized gangster monologue, not a liturgy, yet Trump’s DefSec just treated it as if it were holy writ. That isn’t a cute pop‑culture mash‑up; it is a revealing window into who the rulers America elected in November 2024 really are.