By Haley Britzky, CNN
(CNN) – The Pentagon has revised its list of recognized religious affiliations for military personnel after receiving criticism over the weekend regarding the omission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the “Christian” category.
A list shared online last week by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell outlined 31 religious categories that service members could choose from – with 21 being variations of Christianity. However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not included under Christian, which sparked immediate backlash from Mormon lawmakers, including strong 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 said in a video posted online 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, described the Pentagon’s list as “wrong” and stated it “needs to be corrected.”
On Monday, the Pentagon issued a second version of the list that removed the “Christian” label from various 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 post by the Pentagon’s rapid response account on X said.
Lee expressed his appreciation for the updated list on Monday, stating he was “grateful” to Hegseth “for correcting the error.”
The revisions come as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has committed to reforming the military’s chaplain corps. He mentioned in a video on social media last December that this corps has been “degraded” and “minimized” over recent decades. He announced updates regarding military religious codes back in March this year; however, at that time, no specific list was provided.
Hegseth indicated that there were now over 200 codes used by service members for identifying their religions, calling this situation “impractical and unusable.”
“Our internal review committee recommend that going forward the department use 31 religious affiliation codes,” Hegseth said. “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.”
The-CNN-Wire
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