The Pentagon updated its religious classifications on Monday, after its initial reduction last week garnered criticism from Utah senators upset that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was not listed as “Christian.”Top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced last Friday that the department reduced the list from more than 200 religious affiliations to 31, and he said the reduction “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 shared a list of the remaining religious categories, and all of the ones that fell under the umbrella of Christianity were labeled with the preface “Christian” — for example, “Christian – Catholic.” But the LDS did not have that preface, which sparked angry responses from both of Utah’s senators, among others.
The department released a revised list on Monday, which does not include the “Christian” preface for any religion.
“Last week, a proposed list of simplified faith codes was released to the media,” the Department of War wrote on X. “The Pentagon list included redundant and unnecessary labeling, and the mistake has been fixed.”
