The Department of War updated its religious designations list for military service members Monday following backlash over Mormons not being recognized as a denomination of Christianity.
The Department of War revised its list of recognized faiths from 211 to 31 in a May 20 memorandum, according to Military.com. While 21 of the 31 religious designations recognized various denominations of Christianity, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not recognized as a denomination of Christianity, CNN reported.
Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee reacted to the Department of War’s decision not to recognize Mormons as a denomination of Christianity in a video he shared on X.
“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 said.
“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,” he continued. (RELATED: $1.15 Trillion In Defense Spending Approved By House Armed Services Committee)
Similarly, Republican Utah Rep. Mike Kennedy urged the Department of War to correct its list, according to CNN.
Last week, a proposed list of simplified faith codes was released to the media. The Pentagon list included redundant and unnecessary labeling, and the mistake has been fixed.
The goal of this effort is to simplify a previously out-of-control “belief” coding system that had… pic.twitter.com/yCsQDhZcGp
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) June 8, 2026
The department issued an updated list Monday via its Rapid Response X account, removing “Christian” as an identifier altogether. The updated list includes “simplified faith codes” to refer to each denomination, with “CJ” representing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and “CA” representing Catholic. In addition, agnosticism is represented as “AN,” Buddhism is represented as “BU,” and no religion is represented as “NR.”
“In order to clarify the work of chaplains, and simplify the work of commanders, the Pentagon has consolidated and simplified the list to roughly thirty codes — using the previously used labels for faiths.”
“The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates, but instead to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks,” the post read.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans to streamline faith affiliation codes in March, according to a press release. At the time, Hegseth also announced that military chaplains will wear their religious insignia instead of their rank insignia on their uniforms.
Atheists, Deists, Druids, and New Age churches are among the faith codes that have been excluded from the Department of War’s updated list of recognized faiths, according to Military.com.
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