The Pentagon removed "Christian" descriptors from its shortened religious affiliation list for service members following backlash over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints classification.
7:50 PM
The Pentagon issued a revised list of religious affiliation codes Monday after facing criticism over how it categorized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a newly shortened roster released Friday.
The original Friday list reduced religious codes from over 200 to 31 options for service members. Of those 31 codes, 21 were designated with a "Christian" descriptor—but the Church of Latter-day Saints was not among them. The omission prompted complaints from members of the LDS community, including Republican Senators John Curtis and Mike Lee of Utah.
"It is unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the religion's own foundational tenets," Curtis wrote on social media Saturday.
In response, the Pentagon released a new list Monday afternoon that removed the "Christian" category entirely, providing only the code and name of each religious faith without additional descriptors.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell had announced the shortened list Friday as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's effort to streamline religious support services. Hegseth had previously described the longer list of over 200 codes as "impractical and unusable." In March, he noted that an overwhelming majority of the military population used only six of the codes.
"A shorter list would help chaplains minister to service members in a way that aligns with that service member's faith background and religious practice," Hegseth said, according to reporting from March.
The Pentagon's statement on Monday acknowledged the Friday list but did not provide additional details about the reasoning behind the removal of religious descriptors in the revised version.
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