Pentagon cuts recognized military religions from over 200 to just 31

The Department of War has officially removed 180 faiths from its list of recognized religions, acting on a change previously announced by War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The U.S. Military Chaplain Corps previously recognized over 200 faith codes that servicemembers could claim affiliation with. That number now sits at just 31 as of a Thursday memo from Undersecretary of Defense Anthony Tata, according to Military.com.

Tata’s memo says the change will “streamline the DoW collection of religious preferences for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.”

“The new list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of service members and to provide religious support activities that align with service members’ personal faith and practices,” he added.

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The new list includes Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Islam (Muslims), Judaism, Sikh, and a wide range of Christian-based groups like Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists, the outlet reported.

Hegseth had announced the intention to trim the list of faiths earlier this year.

“The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes.… It was impractical and unusable, and many codes were never used at all,” Hegseth said in March. He went on to note that the vast majority of military members fit under just six of the faith codes.

Alongside that change, the Pentagon also directed serving chaplains to replace their rank insignia with their religious insignia.

“A chaplain is first and foremost a chaplain, and an officer second. This change is a visual representation of that fact,” Hegseth said in a statement in March.

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“Specifically unique to the role of a chaplain, they are first and foremost called and ordained by God. And, while they will retain rank as an officer to those they serve, their rank will not be visible,” he added.