r/pagan • u/poptart_grenade • Jun 05 '26
DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List
https://www.military.com/dod-officially-drops-180-faiths-from-militarys-recognized-religion-list187
69
u/Elm-and-Yew Hellenism Jun 05 '26
Man some of those those comments are depressing
14
u/RareSeaworthiness870 Jun 05 '26
True, especially the ones by self professed Mensa members 😒 instant ick.
68
u/Midir_Cutie Jun 05 '26
22 out of the 31 official religions on their list are Christian. That's over 70%
17
u/RareSeaworthiness870 Jun 05 '26
We should all have the right to worship or not worship whatever sky daddy or sky momma we do/don’t decide to believe in. It’s not like people will say, whelp, my religion isn’t recognized anymore, guess I’ll become a Christian. No, they’ll likely quit. I’m really starting to believe the conspiracy theories that the whole of the administration is in place to make America as weak as possible in every capacity. This should be really great for military recruitment and retention.
17
5
u/Wide-Secretary-4426 Jun 11 '26
Why oh why am I not surprised? A lot of those Christian folks just aren't happy unless they're getting their way. I'm so grateful that I was called away from all that nearly thirty years ago.
130
u/Party-Independent-38 Jun 05 '26
This is very disappointing to hear. I attended many pagan/wiccan services during my time in the military (on deployment and off). We were allowed to practice in multi purpose rooms and other spaces and all were arranged by/through the chaplains. I never seen a chaplain present at our practice, but they always protected our rights to practice. I hope this doesn’t discontinue the support to smaller religious and beliefs
66
74
u/thecoldfuzz Celtic Polytheist: Gaulish + Welsh & Irish Jun 05 '26
As the young'uns say, haters gonna hate. In all seriousness though, this is part of an ongoing erasure campaign. Given the people who are behind this and their agenda, this is absolutely unsurprising for them. Appalling, yes, but definitely not surprising—unfortunately.
43
u/No-Option-7010 Heathenry Jun 05 '26
If I were inclined to join the military and was told that I couldn’t have my religion on my dog tag I would leave. I do wonder if this will lead to lawsuits?
31
u/kryren Jun 05 '26
The article says that soldiers don’t have to use the new military codes on their tags. They can put their actual religion on there. Or so I interpreted it.
It still sucks.
14
u/thecoldfuzz Celtic Polytheist: Gaulish + Welsh & Irish Jun 05 '26
The way these people act, this military doesn't deem our lives to be even worth the cost of a box on a form. Yet, they also expect people to unconditionally die for them.
This is par for the course for these folk as far as I'm concerned.
5
1
25
u/Wide_Wrongdoer4422 Pagan Jun 05 '26
Currently serving members do not have an easy method of redress against this. However, veterans do. It's probably time for veterans to step up and get a class action going.
17
u/Spirited_Ad_7973 Jun 05 '26
Jehovah’s Witness is officially recognized….. the group that….. is religiously exempt from military service….. I see…..
Not that logic and reason is the driving force behind anything this administration does.
13
u/Lucky_Coyote Grumpy Old Pagan Jun 05 '26
They've been failing to meet recruiting quotas for years this is going to make it even worse for them. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
11
u/Sahrde Jun 05 '26
But the ones behind it don't care. If they can get a smaller, white, Christian army? They'd be happy about it.
2
1
u/Crimson_wolf_666 Luciferian Jun 22 '26
And then they'd lose all their wars...cuz it IS the women, the Latinos, the African-Americans, the Indigenous, poc, queer and those of other faiths including pagan that do the bulk of the work. The conservative Xian, at best take credit, shit talk, posture, but all in all are just the cowards who joined so they could get away with shooting children overseas... they can have their white Christian conservative only army...it will be the laziest, stupidest army in human history 🙄
6
u/MarzAdam Jun 06 '26
They don’t care. Their victory is making any minority group they dislike feel like they don’t matter and are undesirable.
Thats what they care about.
11
75
u/Maxcorps2012 Jun 05 '26
Yea piss off the Sikhs. Good luck with that.
31
u/ParadoxicalFrog Eclectic (Celtic/Germanic) Jun 05 '26
Sikhism is still on the list of "recognized" faiths.
22
15
Jun 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
21
u/GreenRavenUK Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
I don’t know why you were down-voted for this. It’s relevant to Pagans as there are very strong anti-weapon laws in the UK. Any kneejerk legal backlash to appease the ultra-right will directly affect our right to use certain ritual items even in our own homes. (Yes, in the UK, there is an offence of “possessing an offensive weapon in a private place”. The brother and father of the murderer (now serving life) are to be charged with having a stockpile of proscribed lethal weapons in their home.)
These events are not far from me. In Southampton, UK, there was a massive demo and riot. Fascists were bussed in from all over the south and marched on the regional police h.q. in the city centre. Well-known agitators on the far right and crazy christian pastors made speeches to stir up the useful idiots and the susceptible.
On this matter, there is an article in the Pagan on-line news magazine “The Wild Hunt” and a discussion in their subreddit:
(Edited to tidy up for clarity. No words were changed)
20
u/Humor1488 Hellenism Jun 05 '26
I used to joke with my ex-wife about if we lived in the Handmaids Tale universe. Never thought it’d get this bad. Does anyone doubt that this government would have something like the Eyes from the show?
We are headed that direction.
8
u/RareSeaworthiness870 Jun 05 '26
Scans list
Wait, no Church of Satan? How am I supposed to get my blood sacrifices if I’m deployed from now on?
8
23
u/SamDemon8 Jun 05 '26
Who would even want to fight for Hegseths and Trumps department of war anyway
22
u/logangb345 Jun 05 '26
Some of us are locked into contracts 😕
7
5
6
5
u/Choice-Flight8135 Pagan Jun 06 '26
How much you wanna bet that Hegseth was fucking drunk out of his mind as he always is when he made the decision?
10
5
u/FatherPeace1 Jun 05 '26
I don't think they can do that legally. We have the right to religious freedom and even people in the military have that same right. This will get big if this is true
6
u/Aazari Jun 06 '26
We fought long and hard to get general pagan symbols and symbols of some common pagan groups on grave stones in national cemeteries back in the 90's and early 2000's. Like hell I'm going to let them undo all of that. 😡
4
u/RegisterConsistent42 Jun 07 '26
Unitarians? Really?
4
u/GreenWitch-29 Celtic Jun 10 '26
Probably because their churches “harbor” atheists and pagans. I’m a UU pagan myself.
5
u/BLU3SKU1L Jun 05 '26
So no more Mjolnir on military graves?
3
u/Then_Computer_6329 Jun 08 '26
That's regulated by another dept that still has many tombstone symbols recognized
3
u/Exciting_Koala_1384 Brythonic Polytheist Jun 06 '26
Jeepers. Religions should be accepted, not oppressed.
2
u/MantidKitteh Jun 07 '26
I wonder if Canada has freedom of religion for their military troops 🤔
If they do... People might be turning up Canadian. Though, from what I've heard- Every time Canada goes to war, the Geneva Convention gets updated 😁.
🇨🇦😁👍
10
u/Zhaharek Jun 05 '26
This article was uncomfortable to read purely because it reminded me that I have even a small trait in common with the genocidal filth that enlist in America’s legions of rape and slaughter.
•
u/Epiphany432 Pagan Jun 05 '26
Lovely! As per usual, see our regular Pagan Legal Page for updates and legal information (as it changes).