Pentagon revises list of religious affiliations after Mormon congressmen's criticism.
Summary
The Pentagon recently announced a shorter list of recognized religious affiliations for military members. After criticism from Mormon lawmakers because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not listed as a Christian denomination, the Pentagon updated the list to remove the "Christian" label from all denominations to avoid excluding any faith.Key Facts
- The Pentagon reduced the number of religious affiliation codes from over 200 to 31.
- The initial new list did not list the Mormon church as a Christian denomination.
- Mormon members of Congress strongly criticized this omission and called for a correction.
- The Pentagon updated the list, removing "Christian" from all denominations mentioned.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the previous system "impractical and unusable."
- Senator Mike Lee and Representative Mike Kennedy publicly condemned the initial list.
- The Pentagon stated its role is to respect sincerely-held faith, not judge religious debates.
- The changes came after public and political pressure within days of the first announcement.
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