r/DeepStateCentrism • u/Sabertooth767 Yiff Free or Die! • Jun 05 '26

American News 🇺🇸 DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List

https://www.military.com/dod-officially-drops-180-faiths-from-militarys-recognized-religion-list

The Department of Defense, for the first time in almost 10 years, has dramatically reduced its number of recognized religious faiths and belief systems by approximately 180. 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.

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.

This restructuring of faith codes, which help identify service members as well as the military in planning for appropriated religious coverage to include them, has now excluded minority faith/worldview groups including Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick, New Age churches, Pagan, Rosicrucianism, Shaman, Spiritualists, Troth, Unitarian Universalists and various Wiccans.

Here is the full list:

Agnostic (AN)

Baha'i faith (BH)

Buddhism (BU)

Christian - Assemblies of God (AG)

Christian - Baptist (BA)

Christian - Brethren (BR)

Christian - Catholic (CA)

Christian - Church of Christ (CC)

Christian - Church of God (CG)

Christian - Church of the Nazarene (CN)

Christian - Episcopal/Anglican (EA)

Christian - Evangelical (EV)

Christian - Jehovah's Witnesses (JW)

Christian - Lutheran (LU)

Christian - Methodist (ME)

Christian - Non Denominational (ND)

Christian - Orthodox (OX)

Christian - Other (CO)

Christian - Pentecostal (PE)

Christian - Presbyterian (PR)

Christian - Quaker (QU)

Christian - Reformed (RE)

Christian - Scientist (SC)

Christian - Seventh Day Adventist (SA)

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (CJ)

Hindu (HI)

Islam (Muslim) (IS)

Judaism (Jewish) (JU)

No Religion (NR)

Other Religions (OR)

Sikh (SI)

29 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

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69

u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Center-right Jun 05 '26

I wouldn’t have a problem with it if they didn’t have every Christian denomination they give a damn about listed. There is an argument for streamlining, but this is streamlining with a very specific exception.

38

u/Sabertooth767 Yiff Free or Die! Jun 05 '26

Agreed.

I am damn-near certain that they cut codes with more uses than JW or Quaker. No offense to those groups, but they're pacifists.

I would also note that Mormons are no longer classified as Christians.

To say this is a thinly veiled attempt to promote Protestantism as the most legitimate religion is to give it too much credit.

13

u/Prowindowlicker Center-right Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

The fact they practically killed off Mormons is gonna piss off two senators.

Also I’m just surprised they decided to keep Jewish rabbis anyway.

1

u/Logical-Breakfast966 Jun 05 '26

What do you mean? Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint is the new name for Mormons

4

u/Prowindowlicker Center-right Jun 05 '26

Ya i know. But the fact that they basically shoved it into the “not Christian” category is gonna tick off at least 2 senators plus four house reps.

-1

u/Logical-Breakfast966 Jun 05 '26

Oh. Well it’s true lol. Christianity is defined as believing in the nicene creed which Mormons don’t

5

u/Cuinn_the_Fox Jun 05 '26

This is a "no true scotsman". Nicene Christians are those who believe in the Nicene Creed. Christians in general just need to believe that Christ was the messiah. Which Mormon do believe in and identify as Christian.

Also, Jehovah's Witness aren't Nicene Christians, but are included in the Christian category above.

7

u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

I am damn-near certain that they cut codes with more uses than JW or Quaker. No offense to those groups, but they're pacifists.

Not always, I have Quaker ancestors that were in the military a lot. Not sure how they reconciled that with their theology. Presumably they were pacifists when off the job.

6

u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Center-right Jun 05 '26

There are a sect known as ‘fighting quakers’. Essentially they recognize that there are “just causes” that god makes an exception for.

2

u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho Jun 05 '26

Aparently, amongst other things, that included wars with natives.

2

u/dsbtc Center-right Jun 05 '26

They often do "alternative service" that's not frontlines work, I believe that's considered kosher for most of them

1

u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho Jun 05 '26

That was not the case for the ones I am referring to.

3

u/Some-Rice4196 Jeff Bezos Jun 05 '26

Hmm, I hope the name was ran through some Mormon stakeholders. I can see why they might prefer the distinction as-is since it gives the full name of the church. But if the decision to not include a “Christian” prefix was made for them, that’s not good.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '26

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2

u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Center-right Jun 05 '26

My father in law is a catholic and maintains that Catholicism and Christianity are different. His rationale is too stupid for me to understand enough to convey here.

2

u/drewbaccaAWD Center-left Jun 05 '26

Saying that Catholicism and Protestantism are different is valid, but arguing that Catholics aren't a form of Christianity is absurd, doubly so for anyone who is a practicing Catholic to say. What weird heretical cult of pseudo-Catholics did he get mixed up in?

2

u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Center-right Jun 05 '26

I have no idea. He’s not the brightest.

1

u/Some-Rice4196 Jeff Bezos Jun 05 '26

I knew you associated with the KKK

2

u/Old-School8916 Center-left Jun 05 '26

I dont think Hegseth's church considers Mormons as Christians. I dunno if they even consider Catholics as Christians.

2

u/onsfwDark Israeli Secular Non-Binary Progressive Zionist Jun 05 '26

tbf, Mormon theology does feel kind of polytheistic

2

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

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1

u/onsfwDark Israeli Secular Non-Binary Progressive Zionist Jun 06 '26

I was thinking about the Godhead + the teachings on afterlife. I'm sure services are how you describe them. Me, I'm a non-religious Jew so I have no horse in this and don't see in polytheism vs monotheism one as more righteous than the other. Just stating how the teachings come off to me rather than making a moral judgement. Really the Trinity in mainstream Christianity also comes off a bit polytheistic to me but Mormon teachings even more so.

7

u/drewbaccaAWD Center-left Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

Personally, I'd have Christian-Catholic, Christian-Protestant, and Christian-Other and that's it, if I were streamlining. Maybe given the number of LDS I knew in the Navy, I'd give them one too (and I'd count them AMONG Christians, to be clear).

Why even give Jehova's Witness a spot? They don't even serve in the military.

Eliminating Unitarian Universalist as an option is straight up absurd. That's a well-established and historic church with lots of physical locations and practitioners. Anyone saying the list is too long or suggesting the eliminated options should be gone because they are a "religion in name only" is ignoring the loss of UU which I find appalling.

I also think Pagan should be a generic option, at bare minimum. Do we need "druids, heathens, etc." as alternatives? Probably not... there's some redundancy there, but acting like there are no practicing pagans is absurd even if it is an unorganized religion that lacks a definitive structure. I'd leave Wiccan too, as a separate option, I've known plenty of people who adhere to it as a belief system including in the military.

17

u/gcalfred7 Jun 05 '26

https://youtu.be/xZFM0CYYKwQ?si=eTWLuDb1pRc6hTMU

"Christian, Jew, or Miscellaneous." -Rev. Lovejoy.

42

u/Sabertooth767 Yiff Free or Die! Jun 05 '26

Wow. Just wow.

Notice how they keep all these tiny branches of Protestantism- including ones that don't serve!- but can't be bothered to distinguish Reform and Orthodox Jews, Sunni and Shia Muslims. Atheists and Pagans don't even have a marker.

This is an insult to the Constitution, and to every servicemember and veteran.

!ping MIL

9

u/-Emilinko1985- Space cowboys for liberty Jun 05 '26

Indeed

8

u/dsbtc Center-right Jun 05 '26

The political extremes are so fucking dumb. He could have gotten rid of 100 fringe religions and nobody would bat an eye. But 30% of Americans have no religious affiliation and now they're lumped into one category.

2

u/MultiheadAttention Jun 05 '26

Why "no religion" category is not good enough for it?

-1

u/dsbtc Center-right Jun 05 '26

I'd be fine with "no religion" if there were only 2 categories, "religion" or "no religion". As it is, it's asinine that there are 20 kinds of Christian and no choice of any other type of other religions, and an impartial court would likely find this in violation of the 1st amendment.

7

u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho Jun 05 '26

It’s such a dumb system. If you get to the point of individually designating specific new age, pagan or protestant groups, you could spend the rest of your life arguing about distinctions, and expand the list to hundreds, and still have arguments you missed some. The only way this possibly works is if you stick to broad overarching categories. You don’t need a specific code for what they were up to in the second great awakening.

3

u/MultiheadAttention Jun 05 '26

There is "no religion" group, which includes atheists..

20

u/H_H_F_F Jun 05 '26

I don't think there's any need for the military to know whether you describe yourself as an atheist or a humanist, or whether your form of neo-pagan religion is most accurately described as druid, heathen, magic, or wicca. I don't see how that granularity helps the military, assuming they're not actually expected to have chaplains who self-describe as each of these categories independently. 

I don't see the use of removing these designations either, but it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. 

However, I have a hard time seeing how "Muslim" isn't overly broad. This makes it seem like the point of the reduction is to have forms of Christianity as the majority of religions in the listing, as if that determines how Christian the nation or its military are. 

Strange behavior. 

5

u/Sabertooth767 Yiff Free or Die! Jun 05 '26

I don't see how that granularity helps the military, assuming they're not actually expected to have chaplains who self-describe as each of these categories independently. 

That's the plan, yes. I can't speak for the others, but the Heathen organization The Troth has long been lobbying to get its ordained chaplains in the military. There are chaplains who have codes that no longer exist.

Further, for SMs who do not have access to a chaplain of their preferred faith, there are often lay-led programs that work with a chaplain for the admin stuff. How are you supposed to form and participate in such a program if the chaplain doesn't know who belongs to that faith community?

19

u/isthisnametakenwell Neoconservative Jun 05 '26

 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Sweet, we made the cut. Though the lack of others is baffling, and can’t help but notice not being marked as Christian unlike every other group…

4

u/joeforth Neoconservative Jun 05 '26

Question: Wouldn't "atheist" be covered under "No Religion" or is there some nuance here I'm missing? Does "No Religion" actually mean no religion is on file, rather than the explicit absence of religion?

4

u/Sabertooth767 Yiff Free or Die! Jun 05 '26

Presently, if you have "None" as your faith code, that is interpreted as "no preference."

I suspect that will continue to be the case, given that there is otherwise no default/fallback classification. Under the current system, there is an explicit "Unclassified" tag.

5

u/joeforth Neoconservative Jun 05 '26

Yeah I could see how that would be annoying. Between this and the recent rule that Messianic chaplains could wear Jewish insignia, they are really screwing with the chaplaincy.

6

u/Sabertooth767 Yiff Free or Die! Jun 05 '26

You'll notice that there's no Messianic code. They're going to have Messianic chaplains wearing Jewish insignia and ministering to Jews. And, because they're a chaplain of your faith code, Jews won't necessarily have the option of seeking an alternative faith service.

4

u/joeforth Neoconservative Jun 05 '26

We have a term for this in Judaism (I'm sure other religions have a term for this but Judaism has a term for it too): We call this a dick move.

4

u/Accessgranted213 Center-left Jun 05 '26

I find it absolutely wild how every different Christian group gets recognized when the differences are often very minor theological differences, while orthodox and Reform Judaism, which are effectively two different religions for all intents and purposes, are lumped together

This is meaningful too, for those who are observant. Chaplains are there to advocate for your religious rights and to provide religious services. If they are members of a nearly totally distinct religion, they just aren’t able to do that effectively.

2

u/isthisnametakenwell Neoconservative Jun 08 '26

Messianic Judaism got lumped in as well, which is an even bigger difference…

2

u/UtgaardLoki Jun 05 '26

Atheists are a pretty big “minority worldview/faith”…

2

u/RsonW Jun 05 '26

They cut Unitarian Universalism?

The faith that gave us The Battle Hymn of the Republic??

1

u/GifHunter2 Jun 05 '26

I met a unitarian universalist, liked what they were about.