Defense & National Security
The Big Story
Pentagon policy ruffles feathers among Mormons, prompts changes
The Pentagon has reworked a list of religious designations troops can register as after Mormon lawmakers blew up over a previous list that did not include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) under “Christian.”
© Greg Nash
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this year declared the Pentagon would cut down the faith codes — the recognized faith groups meant to provide more accurate demographic data on religious beliefs held among service members — from 200 to just 31 . He called the former system “impractical and unusable” with many codes never used at all.
“An overwhelming majority of the military population used only six of the codes ,” he said in March, adding that a more streamlined system will support chaplains in ministering to service members “in a way that aligns with that service member’s faith background and religious practice.”
On Friday, the Pentagon announced service members could only register one of those 31 religions on their personnel records. But LDS was not listed under one of the 21 Christian-labeled denominations to choose from, upsetting several Utah lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Lee (R), who called the new designation “very unfortunate.”
“ I find this offensive , not just because that happens to be my faith, and not just because that happens to be the faith of tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel, but it’s also just repugnant to any sense of decency, any sense of our common heritage and our common belief that the government needs to not weigh in on doctrinal disputes between various religious denominations,” Lee said in a video posted on social platform X on Sunday.
In a Friday X post, Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell displayed the May 20 memo directing the changes, saying they were “long overdue.” He said the Pentagon isn’t making “any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief,” rather, it is trying to streamline data collection and religious support for soldiers, sailors and airmen.
“With this move, we are 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,” Parnell wrote.
But that was not an acceptable explanation for Mormon House and Senate members, prompting a quick change. The new list now has just 30 faith codes, including LDS, but does not specify which religions fall under the Christian designation.
“Last week, a proposed list of simplified faith codes was released to the media. The Pentagon list included redundant and unnecessary labeling, and the mistake has been fixed ,” a Pentagon X account posted on Monday.
“The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates , but instead to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks,” according to the post.
Mormons in Congress had previously bashed the first list, as LDS considers itself to be a Christian denomination.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
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