A copy of the Book of Mormon sits in the sanctuary of the base chapel at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., March 8, 2024. The Pentagon updated its list of official military religious affiliations after Mormon lawmakers expressed outrage that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was initially excluded from the “Christian” subcategory on a revised list published by the Defense Department. (Jerry Saslav/U.S. Air Force)
The Defense Department’s much-slimmed list of codes for tracking service members’ faith groups was revised just days after an earlier version drew the ire of Mormon lawmakers and others for excluding their church from Christianity.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted the initial list Friday with a May 20 memo that cut the number of religious categories from over 210 to just 31.
Following criticism, the Pentagon on Monday issued a revised list that removed a “Christian” tag that had preceded 21 denominations on the list.
That number included Catholics, Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not among them.
The omission prompted outcry from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who said on X late Sunday that he had just spoken to President Donald Trump about the matter and was “thrilled about where this is heading.”
The Defense Department’s official rapid response account said Monday on X, “The Pentagon list included redundant and unnecessary labeling, and the mistake has been fixed. The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates, but instead to ensure sincerely held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks.”
In a post Monday saying he was grateful to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for correcting the error, Lee said he agreed with the statement.
Sen. John Curtis and U.S. Rep. Michael Kennedy, both Utah Republicans, also spoke out over the issue. Curtis said in an X post Saturday that it is “unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the religion’s own foundational tenets.”
Though Mormons profess faith in Jesus Christ, some denominations consider them heretical because their teachings about God, Jesus and the Trinity differ from traditional doctrines reflected in the Nicene Creed, a fourth-century statement of Christian belief.
However, the Pentagon did not withhold the label from other groups whose status as Christian is disputed because they reject the creed or traditional teachings about Christ’s divine nature.
The controversy over the missing label drew criticism from both sides of the aisle, with the Utah Democratic Party saying on X that the government “doesn’t get to decide which communities count as authentically Christian.”
Hegseth, who often makes a point of speaking about his evangelical Christian faith, has faced criticism for his treatment of religion in the Defense Department.
In particular, his hosting of monthly voluntary evangelical prayer services in the Pentagon drew backlash from religious freedom advocates and Catholic publications for including figures such as Idaho-based pastor Doug Wilson.
Wilson has sharply criticized Catholicism as idolatrous, argued against women’s suffrage and said Mormons are not Christians.
In announcing the elimination of 180 religion codes last week, Parnell said the new list was “not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief” or designate “officially approved religions.”
“Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups,” he said.
The explanation is similar to the one given in 2017 when the Pentagon expanded the list to more than 210 faith designations, which included both mainstream and obscure Christian sects, as well as Wiccans, pagans, atheists and many others.
The earlier expansion, recommended by the Armed Forces Chaplains Board, was part of an effort under the first Trump administration to “standardize and better identify religious preferences” and “enable better planning for religious support.”
Like others in the Trump administration, Hegseth has lambasted programs meant to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion.
He announced plans to shrink the list of religious codes in a March video about broader changes to the military chaplain corps designed to counter what he described as a shift of focus away from “truth” to “self-help or self-care.”
But the reduction in categories could complicate the work of tending to service members’ spiritual needs, retired Maj. Gen. William D. Razz Waff, executive director of the Military Chaplains Association, told The Washington Post.
“It looks good on paper, but wow is the execution going to be a mess,” Waff said.
