The Pentagon announced on Friday that it reduced its list of recognized religions from over 200 to 31, removing 180 faiths.
“The Office of the Secretary of War is announcing a significant change to the Department’s categorization of religious affiliation. In a long overdue move, we reduced the list from over 200 unmanageable categories to 31. With this move, we are returning to the original intent of collecting this data – to allow our chaplains and religious support personnel to provide the best spiritual care to our warfighters,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said.
“This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of ‘officially approved’ religions. Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups,” he continued.
“The Department of War places a high value on the First Amendment and the free exercise of religion. Chaplains play an instrumental role in providing spiritual care and facilitating the Warfighters’ ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all. With this new change, we believe we can provide the best data to support our chaplains in that effort,” he added.
The Office of the Secretary of War is announcing a significant change to the Department’s categorization of religious affiliation. In a long overdue move, we reduced the list from over 200 unmanageable categories to 31. With this move, we are returning to the original intent of… https://t.co/dgHX5ytzjJ pic.twitter.com/eho537O08J
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) June 5, 2026
More from Military.com:
The reforms mark the first time the list has been officially revised since a memo was issued March 27, 2017, decreasing the total number of faiths from 211 to its new number of 31. The changes were iterated in a May 20, 2026, memorandum issued by the Under Secretary of War and signed by Anthony Tata, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness of the United States, and obtained by Military.com.
This latest revision to the faith codes comes at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the Tata-signed memo, done to “streamline the DoW collection of religious preferences collection for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.” It calls for the previously instituted faith and belief codes to be revised within a 60-day period from the issuance of the memorandum.
“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,” Tata wrote.
He added that members will not be limited to the list of “religious affiliation codes” when selecting information for their dog tags. The revised list, according to documents obtained by Military.com, includes Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Islam (Muslims), Judaism, Sikh, and a wide range of Christian-based groups like Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists.
Read the full list below:
“The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes,” Hegseth said in March, according to Fox News.
“It was impractical and unusable, and many codes were never used at all,” he added.
Utah Sens. John Curtis and Mike Lee pushed back against the list, which appeared to categorize The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints separately from the other Christian codes.
Utah Sens. John Curtis and Mike Lee are pushing back after the Pentagon changed its categorizations for chaplains to not classify members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as “Christian.”https://t.co/2bRikxcybv pic.twitter.com/ryxQyVvssP
— KSL.com – Utah Breaking News (@KSLcom) June 6, 2026
“Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches?” Lee questioned.
Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches? pic.twitter.com/t4u6PI29ON
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) June 6, 2026
“Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic, service-oriented individuals in our country. They are also unequivocally Christian—just look at who is in the name of the Church. It is unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the religion’s own foundational tenets. I am working now to ensure a correction is made,” Curtis said.
Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic, service-oriented individuals in our country. They are also unequivocally Christian—just look at who is in the name of the Church.
It is unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the… https://t.co/ywqk59ZtRz
— Senator John Curtis (@SenJohnCurtis) June 6, 2026
KSL.com shared further:
The Department of War letter on the official change states it will “enhance delivery of targeted religious support from Chaplaincy.” Service members will not be limited to the new list of religious affiliation codes when selecting information on their identification tags, the letter states.
The new list of religious affiliation codes identifies 21 Christian religions with a second identifying name, but then lists The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on its own.
Some other Christian faiths have questioned whether the Church of Jesus Christ is in fact Christian due to differing beliefs. But many members of Utah’s predominant religion have taken issue with not being counted as Christians, as the faith is centered around the teachings of Jesus Christ.
