GOP senators demand Pentagon fix LDS exclusion

Pentagon religious – Republican senators Mike Lee and John Curtis of Utah say the Pentagon’s new policy reclassifying religious affiliation data leaves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints off a list of Christian faiths, and they are pushing the department for an immedi

For Utah senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, the Pentagon’s latest religious-tracking policy didn’t just look like paperwork. It looked like a message—one they say the Department of Defense should not be sending.

They are challenging a recent Defense Department policy directive that omits The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) from its designated list of Christian faiths. Both lawmakers called the administrative decision “unacceptable” and pressed the Pentagon for an immediate corrective update.

At the center of the fight is not only the LDS Church’s placement—or lack of it—but a wider restructuring of how the military categorizes the religious affiliations of its personnel. The classification system is used for administrative tracking and resource allocation. Defense officials say that makes the policy’s purpose practical. Critics say it also touches something more fundamental: whether a faith identity is recognized accurately in the institutions meant to serve service members of every belief.

The Pentagon’s defense for the change rests on a sweeping simplification. Officials say the policy shift is meant to streamline what the Pentagon described as an “unmanageable” system. The restructuring reduced the number of officially recognized religious affiliation codes from more than 200 down to 31.

“The Defense Department says it is returning to the original intent of collecting this data—to allow our chaplains and religious support personnel to provide the best spiritual care to our warfighters,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement.

Parnell added that the department’s consolidation is not designed to make claims about the legitimacy of any faith. “This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief. nor is it intended to provide a list of ‘officially approved’ religions. ” he said. The point, he continued, is to help chaplains quickly assess the religious composition of their units.

“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,” Parnell said.

He also emphasized First Amendment protections. saying that chaplains play an “instrumental role” in supporting service members’ ability to freely exercise religion—or none at all. “Chaplains play an instrumental role in providing spiritual care and facilitating the Warfighters’ ability to freely exercise their religion of choice. or no religion at all. ” Parnell said.

The Pentagon’s consolidation, however, is also where many critics see a real-world cost. Under the new approach, a number of minority faith categories were discontinued or folded into broader buckets.

The policy ended individual tracking for categories including Atheism, Humanism, Wicca, Paganism, and Unitarian Universalism. It also directed affected service members to register under generalized designations such as “Agnostic. ” “No Religion. ” or “Other Religions.” Traditional Christian denominations were grouped under broader headers without specifying individual branches.

Opponents argue that this broad consolidation effectively erases the distinct identities of minority belief systems. potentially complicating accurate demographic representation inside the military’s spiritual-support infrastructure. And that is part of what makes the LDS dispute feel different to some in Utah—given the state is home to the global headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Curtis and Lee, both members of the faith, have said the government’s classification conflicts with LDS beliefs.

Curtis rebuked the directive on X on Saturday. writing: “Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic. service-oriented individuals in our country. They are also unequivocally Christian—just look at who is in the name of the Church. It is unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the religion’s own foundational tenets. I am working now to ensure a correction is made.”.

Lee echoed those concerns, questioning why the global church was left out of Christian denominations despite its focus on the teachings of Jesus Christ. “Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the Christian churches?” Lee asked on X on Saturday.

In another post, Lee added: “If only we, as Latter-day Saints, belonged to a church that had ‘Jesus Christ’ in its name and His image in its logo … Oh wait.”

The dispute now puts the Pentagon in the spotlight over how far logistical streamlining should go when it intersects with the identities of the people the policy is meant to serve—especially in a system where chaplains rely on accurate religious categorization to decide how to structure spiritual resources for “all faith groups.”.

Pentagon Department of Defense LDS Church Mike Lee John Curtis religious affiliation codes chaplains First Amendment Utah