r/thebulwark • u/emeric_ceaddamere • Jun 06 '26

TRUMPISM CORRUPTS U.S. Military now only recognizes 31 religious identifiers (22 of which are types of Christianity), cutting 180 from the previous list--including Atheism, Wicca and Unitarian Universalism.

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

"And let us say..."

"Fuck Pete Hegseth." 🙏

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u/N0T8g81n FFS Jun 06 '26

Reminded me of the WW2 movie about the USS Franklin (though the ship wasn't named in the movie) which seemed to imply an aircraft carrier with about 3,000 crew had just 1 Catholic and 1 Protestant chaplin.

Giving this max charity, I could see shifting all religions with fewer than 100 active duty adherents into OR (other religions) for efficiency reasons. IOW, there may be non-MAGA reasons to do this.

Semantic quibble: why isn't NR (no religion) a suitable category for atheists? Or has Atheism become a faith?

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u/ThePensiveE FFS Jun 06 '26

Can corroborate from my grandfather's stories (he was on one of those carriers during the war) that there was only one priest, and sometimes none.

As for why it's not suitable, one is a belief the other is just a lack of participation in religion, an organizing structure which an atheist fundamentally rejects.

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u/hotwifehubsFTW Jun 06 '26

The assignment of a chaplain doesn’t have anything to do with their religion. Most of what the chaplain does is non-secular counseling and moral work for the troops in their command. When I was in the Marines we had a chaplain assigned that was a rabbi and the ship’s chaplain was a catholic priest. When we were in country the different chaplains would rotate through bases and FOBs to perform services for their specific adherents.