You may have seen the recent video of Secretary of Defense Pet Hegseth praying at a gathering. He probably asked a staffer to find him a Bible passage that showed how tough God is, so he began to do the reading, which he seems to say is from the book of Cesar – it’s hard to tell. He begins to read the passage, and the last line is from Ezekiel 25:17. It says, “I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful punishments. Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance on them.” The part leading up to it, however, when joined with that verse, is from a scene in the movie “Pulp Fiction.” In this scene, Samuel L. Jackson’s character is holding a gun to the head of a man on his knees and is saying a weird collection of words just before he shoots him in the head. The words in the scene – and Hegseth’s prayer – is a combination of short phrases from a variety of scriptural passages that have no connection to one another. This is an example of what we have been talking about – violence and hate cloaked in fake piety. Christian Nationalism.
I think that this is what Jesus warned us about when He said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ (Mt. 7: 15-23).
There is no place for codified religion in the halls of government. People have the right to practice their own religion, but they don’t have the right to force it on the rest of us. A soldier or teacher or plumber can say prayers all day – to themselves – but they can’t force the rest of us to pray those prayers. This performative religion, which we have seen boldly on display recently in the president’s tiff with the pope, is not only false – it is dangerous. It seems clear that Mr. Hegseth’s religion is really about male domination and violence – his pastor clearly preaches these things. There is no Jesus anywhere to be found – no compassion or empathy or love. Do not be fooled by their false professions of faith – they worship at the altar of callous destruction, sing hymns that glorify pain and suffering, and pray to a false god. And they prove this every day with every action and every word. And Jesus was right – we know them by their fruits, don’t we?
Prayer – Holy God, we ask that Your Spirit might speak to all of us today, leading us in love, not violence – life, not death. Amen.
Today’s art is a poster from Pulp Fiction.