Pentagon Revises Religious Affiliation List After Backlash From Mormons

BreakingBusinessBreaking NewsPentagon Revises Religious Affiliation List After Backlash From MormonsByZachary Folk,Forbes Staff. I cover breaking news.Follow AuthorJun 08, 2026, 04:26pm EDTToplineThe Pentagon on Monday published an updated list of religious affiliations, backtracking days after Mormon lawmakers expressed outrage at a revamped list the Defense Department published last Friday—which didn’t list the LDS church under a subcategory for “Christian” denominations.Mormon lawmakers, including Sen. Mike Lee, took issue with an update to the military’s religious denomination classification system.CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesKey FactsOn Friday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell posted an updated list of “officially approved” religious affiliations and codes for them, narrowing the list down to just 31 in order to collect better data for military chaplains.The list included 21 denominations labeled “Christian”—a marker that was excluded from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the primary Mormon church.The move was met with swift backlash from Mormon lawmakers, including both of Utah’s Republican senators, Mike Lee and John Curtis, as well as Rep. Mike Kennedy, R-Utah.On Monday, the Pentagon’s rapid response X account said the list published on Friday was just a way to “simplify a previously out-of-control ‘belief’ coding system that had ballooned to over 200 codes,” and it had now fixed a mistake with “redundant” labeling.Before the change was announced, Lee said he spoke with President Donald Trump about the Mormon exclusion, insisting the president “loves Latter-day Saints.”The account published a new list on Monday, which eliminated the “Christian” subcategory altogether and listed denominations like Catholic, Lutheran and Evangelical without the “Christian” moniker preceding them. if (!window.cnxel) { window.cnxel = {}; window.cnxel.cmd = []; var iframe = document.createElement('iframe'); iframe.style.display = 'none'; iframe.onload = fu...