The Pentagon has up to date its list of verified religious affiliations for service members utilized in HR methods and eliminated the “Christian” designation from a number of faiths after dealing with backlash over the weekend that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not designated as Christian.
A list shared on-line final week by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell formalized 31 religious classes that service members might determine as — 21 of which had been recognized as variations of Christianity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not recognized as Christian, a reality instantly criticized by Mormon lawmakers together with staunch Trump supporter Sen. Mike Lee.
“I think it’s very unfortunate that the Pentagon has chosen to identify basically every faith group in America that professes faith in Jesus Christ as Christian with one exception: that is those belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Lee stated in a video posted on-line on Sunday. “I find this offensive, not just because that happens to be my faith and not just because it happens to be the faith of tens of thousands of US 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.”
Another Republican Utah lawmaker, Rep. Mike Kennedy, referred to as the Pentagon’s list “wrong” and stated it “needs to be corrected.”
Monday, the Pentagon launched a second model of the list, which eliminated the “Christian” identifier from the varied faiths and denominations.
“The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates, but instead to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks,” a publish by the Pentagon’s fast response account on X stated.
Lee welcomed the up to date list of religious codes on Monday, saying he was “grateful” to Hegseth “for correcting the error.”
The modifications come as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has vowed to overtake to the army’s chaplain corps, saying in a video on social media in December that the chaplain corps has been “degraded” and “minimized” in latest many years. He announced the changes to the army’s religious codes in March this yr, although the precise list itself wasn’t launched on the time.
Hegseth stated the quantity of codes utilized by service members to determine their faiths had “ballooned to well over 200 faith codes,” calling it “impractical and unusable.”
“Our internal review committee recommend that going forward the department use 31 religious affiliation codes,” Hegseth stated. “This brings the codes in line with its original purpose, giving chaplains clear, usable information so they can minister to service members in a way that aligns with that service member’s faith background and religious practice.”