GPG NEWS TL

For good reason

Secretary Hegseth on Wednesday shared a custom prayer, referenced as the CSAR prayer, used by the brave warfighters of Sandy-1 who led the daylight rescue mission of Dude 44 Alpha out of Iran, which was obviously inspired by dialogue in Pulp Fiction. However, both the CSAR prayer and the dialogue in Pulp Fiction 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.

I saw a headline in a U.S. news outlet mocking Pete Hegseth for misquoting Scripture—ironically, from the film Pulp Fiction—suggesting that it made him, and by extension the United States, a global laughingstock. But I cannot help but think: what about how this rhetoric makes us in the Middle East look—and feel? What of the deep embarrassment and grief we carry when Scripture is invoked so casually, and even dangerously, to frame war in sacred terms? What does it do to our witness when this war is portrayed as somehow divinely sanctioned? For the sake of the credibility of our Christian faith—especially in a region already wounded by conflict and religious manipulation—I sincerely hope this kind of rhetoric comes to an end. Let us pray—not only for an end to this war, but to all wars. And let us pray that faith leaders will continue to rise with courage and challenge such discourse, and to proclaim instead a vision of peace rooted in justice and truth—not the fragile “peace” of empire, imposed by force, but the just peace revealed in the way of Christ.

Yes.