Pentagon trims – The Pentagon reduced and reorganized the religious faith codes used to support U.S. military members, cutting recognized codes from more than 200 to 30. Mormon lawmakers denounced the reclassification of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, prompti
On June 7, Rep. Mike Kennedy posted that the Pentagon’s choice to list the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints separately from other Christian faiths was “wrong and needs to be corrected.” By June 8. Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis—both Mormon—were publicly escalating the fight. and hours later the Pentagon reversed part of its approach. saying its earlier decision had been a “mistake.”.
The back-and-forth has now landed on a narrower. simpler system for how the Pentagon categorizes religious affiliations for service members and chaplain support. In a June 8 statement. the agency said its update “included redundant and unnecessary labeling.” It had confirmed the change the week before.
Before the correction, the Pentagon’s revised list reduced recognized faith codes from more than 200 to 30. Within that list, 21 faiths were labeled “Christian.” The LDS Church was placed in a separate category. The very way it was positioned—rather than any attempt to remove the LDS Church from recognition—was what drew the backlash from Mormon Republican lawmakers who argue that the Pentagon’s framing is offensive.
Lee said in a June 8 social media post that he spoke with President Donald Trump about his concerns with the characterization. Hours after Lee’s post, the Pentagon walked back its original decision, saying the “mistake has been fixed.”
The Pentagon’s adjustment was not to label the LDS Church as “Christian.” Instead, it said it was removing the “Christian” labeling from other religions. The updated list of recognized faiths also removed “Christian – Other.”
In its June 8 statement, the Pentagon framed the change as a fix to an expanded system: the goal of the effort was to simplify a belief-coding approach that had “ballooned to over 200 codes.” The agency said the system had become out of control.
The shift is tied to a broader reorganization. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth ordered the latest move to streamline the number of religions in a May 20 memo that sparked controversy with the Mormon lawmakers. The list that resulted classifies 21 faith traditions as “Christian” and nine others. including Islam. Judaism. Buddhism. Hinduism. and a general category called “other religions.”.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. in an earlier statement. said the changes were “not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief. ” and were not intended to produce a list of “officially approved” religions. He said the reduction of religious affiliations codes was meant to help military chaplains “quickly look at the religious composition of their units” and determine how to allocate resources.
The dispute touches a fault line that has long been present in American politics: whether the LDS Church is viewed as Christian by some evangelical believers. Members of the LDS Church affirm that they are Christian. But according to the church’s website. some other Christian denominations—including evangelical groups—do not see the LDS Church as Christian and have described it as a cult.
That same concern has shown up in political campaigns. Former Sen. Mitt Romney. R-Utah. faced questions during his 2008 and 2012 presidential runs as he tried to court evangelical Christians skeptical of his Mormon faith. A 2012 poll found that 23% of White evangelical voters were uncomfortable with Romney’s religion.
Hegseth’s own church is also among those that view the LDS Church as non-Christian. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s church, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, is listed as a faith tradition that takes that view.
The Pentagon’s latest move is also part of a sequence of changes Hegseth has sought to implement for religious expression within the military. In March. Hegseth announced that military chaplains would no longer wear their rank insignia and were instead ordered to display their religious insignia while retaining their rank as officers.
The chronology makes the stakes hard to miss: a coding system that the Pentagon says was meant to simplify support for chaplains quickly became a public fight about classification—one that lawmakers and the White House-linked attention from Lee described as deeply offensive. and one the Pentagon later described as a fixable labeling mistake.
Pentagon religious codes LDS Church Mike Lee John Curtis Mike Kennedy Pete Hegseth military chaplains religious affiliation categorization Donald Trump faith coding system