Friday, June 5, 2026 - The US Department of War has officially removed 180 faiths from its list of recognized religions in the military.
The U.S. Military Chaplain Corps previously
recognized over 200 faith codes that military women and men could claim
affiliation with.
That number has now been reduced to 31 as of a Thursday,
June 4, memo from Undersecretary of Defense Anthony Tata, according to
Military.com.
Tata's memo says the change will "streamline the DoW
collection of religious preferences for service members to enhance the delivery
of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy."
"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,"
he added.
The new list includes Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Islam
(Muslims), Judaism, Sikh, and a wide range of Christian-based groups like
Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists, the outlet reported.
Hegseth had announced the intention to trim the list of
faiths earlier this year.
"The previous system had ballooned to well over 200
faith codes.… It was impractical and unusable, and many codes were never used
at all," Hegseth said in March.
He went on to note that the vast majority of military
members fit under just six of the faith codes.
Alongside that change, the Pentagon also directed
serving chaplains to replace their rank insignia with their religious
insignia.
"A chaplain is first and foremost a chaplain, and an
officer second. This change is a visual representation of that fact,"
Hegseth said in a statement in March.
"Specifically unique to the role of a chaplain, they
are first and foremost called and ordained by God. And, while they will retain
rank as an officer to those they serve, their rank will not be visible,"
he added.
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