Pentagon revises religion list after Mormon backlash over LDS omission

The Pentagon removed the Christian subheading from its revised religion list after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the original version, a move that immediately shifted the fight from classification to authority. The updated list still includes the LDS church alongside Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism, but no faith is now labeled Christian. The change matters inside the military because the religious-affiliation codes help chaplains understand the makeup of their units and provide support tied to service members’ beliefs and practices.

The dispute began after the Defense Department cut its recognized religious-affiliation codes from more than 200 to 31, part of a simplification Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had described in March as "impractical and unusable." The first list, released Friday, identified 21 denominations as Christian but did not include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in that category. By Monday, the Pentagon had rewritten the list to eliminate the Christian heading entirely, saying the earlier wording contained "redundant and unnecessary labeling" and that "the mistake has been fixed."

Utah’s Mormon lawmakers quickly turned the omission into a political issue. Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican and member of the LDS church, called the exclusion "offensive" and "repugnant" and pressed the Pentagon to reverse course. Lee later said he had spoken with President Donald Trump about the matter. Sen. John Curtis and Rep. Mike Kennedy, both Utah Republicans and Latter-day Saints, also urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to amend the list.

The church itself has long said it considers itself Christian, and its official materials say members "unequivocally affirm themselves to be Christian." Church officials have also described it as devoutly Christian, underscoring why the Pentagon’s original wording drew such a sharp response. Rather than decide the doctrinal question, the Defense Department sidestepped it by dropping the Christian label from the personnel system altogether.

The code list traces back to a 2017 system tied to a 2013 congressional mandate to better capture faith and belief data in the ranks. The Pentagon says the codes are used by the Chaplain Corps to anticipate religious needs and to deliver support consistent with a service member’s faith practices, while troops can still choose what information appears on dog tags. The revision leaves in place a system built for administration, but the fight over the LDS omission exposed how quickly those labels can become political, and how much they still matter to service members seeking official recognition inside Pentagon systems.