Just days after announcing a drastically reduced list of recognized religions for service members, the Pentagon is doing an about-face after backlash from the Mormon Church.
The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints was not included as one of the many Christian denominations within the military’s new list of 31 religious affiliations, leading to outcry on social media and strong rebukes from Mormon members of Congress who urged the Pentagon to update the list.
The non-inclusion of the church among other Christian denominations created a backlash on social media and drew strong rebukes from Mormon members of Congress who urged the Pentagon to update the list.
The Pentagon is viewed from the window of an airplane Aug. 27, 2023, in Washington.
Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
In 2017, during the first Trump administration, the Pentagon released a list of more than 200 religious affiliation codes that could be used by military chaplains to get a quick understanding of the number of faiths in their units. The list complied with a 2013 congressional mandate to capture a better picture of the faith and beliefs in the ranks.
In March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video release that the Pentagon would reduce the number of faith codes to 31 labeling the earlier system as “impractical and unusable.”
The list of those 31 codes issued on Friday by the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson included the word “Christian” before 21 specific denominations, but the code for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not include that description.
On Monday, the Pentagon released an updated version of the list that removed “Christian” from the religious affiliations that had received that description.
The change followed condemnations by Mormon lawmakers that the Pentagon’s non-inclusion of the church’s as a Christian faith was a mistake that should be corrected.
In a video released over the weekend, Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah and a member of the LDS church, described the exclusion as “offensive” and “repugnant.”
“I’m imploring people at the Pentagon to reconsider this — not just reconsider it, but undo it,” he said. “Secretary Hegseth, tear down that wall! This is not cool! Get rid of it, get rid of it now!”
Another Utah Republican lawmaker, Rep. Mike Kennedy, called the Pentagon’s list “wrong” and said it “needs to be corrected.”
“The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates, but instead to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks,” Kennedy posted on his X account.
On Friday, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, had publicly posted the list on his X account and included photos of a Hegseth memo announcing the move as well as a copy of the list accompanying that memo.
In releasing the updated list on Monday the Pentagon’s rapid response account on X described the earlier list as “a proposed list” that had been released to the press and “included redundant and unnecessary labeling, and the mistake has been fixed.”
The post added that “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 response to the Pentagon’s comment, Lee posted on X, “I agree with this statement, and am grateful to @SecWar Hegseth for correcting the error.”