Utah Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) criticized the Pentagon after learning that the Department of War’s revised list of religious affiliation codes does not categorize members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under the broader Christian designation.
“Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic, service-oriented individuals in our country,” Curtis wrote in a post on social media. “They are also unequivocally Christian—just look at who is in the name of the Church.”
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Curtis called the classification “unacceptable,” arguing that a government agency should not define a faith tradition in a way that contradicts its own beliefs and teachings. He said he is working with department officials to ensure the issue is corrected.
Lee also weighed in on the controversy, posting an image of the church’s logo on social media.
“If only we, as Latter-day Saints, belonged to a church that had ‘Jesus Christ’ in its name and His image in its logo … Oh wait,” Lee wrote.
The dispute follows the Pentagon’s decision to significantly reduce the number of recognized religious affiliation codes used across the military. The revised list contains 31 faith categories, down from roughly 211 religious affiliation codes established during a major expansion in 2017.
Department officials have emphasized that the change is administrative rather than theological.
“With this move, we are returning to the original intent of collecting this data—to allow our chaplains and religious support personnel to provide the best spiritual care to our warfighters,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
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Parnell said the reduction in affiliation codes is not intended to judge the legitimacy of any faith tradition or create a list of officially approved religions. Instead, he said, the streamlined categories are designed to help military chaplains quickly assess the religious makeup of their units and allocate resources accordingly.
“The Department of Defense places a high value on the First Amendment and the free exercise of religion,” Parnell said. “Chaplains play an instrumental role in providing spiritual care and facilitating the warfighters’ ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all. With this new change, we believe we can provide the best data to support our chaplains in that effort.”
