The Pentagon is reportedly dropping roughly 180 faiths and belief systems from its officially recognized list.
The Defense Department will only recognize 31 such systems going forward, down from about 211, according to a May memo obtained by Military.com.
“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,” reads the memo, which was reportedly signed by Anthony Tata, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
The Independent has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
A former U.S. Army chaplain sharply criticized the changes.
“When I raised my hand to become an Army chaplain, I swore that I would support and defend the Constitution,” the veteran told Military.com. “The First Amendment is the free exercise of religion for everybody. That’s what I was buying into.”
“That’s a tragedy and travesty, absolutely,” they added of the changes. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s a violation of the United States Constitution.”
The military will continue to recognize Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and Sikhs, and followers of a variety of Christian denominations, among others, according to the outlet. It will reportedly no longer recognize view systems including those of Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick, New Age churches, Pagan, Rosicrucianism, Shaman, Spiritualists, Troth, Unitarian Universalists and Wiccans.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has pushed to incorporate public displays of Christian prayer into various military settings, signaled the changes 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, adding that a significant majority of service members use only six of the religious codes.
In his March announcement, Hegseth said that the rank insignia military chaplains wear on their work uniforms will be replaced by their religious insignia.
The secretary has led Christian prayer services at the Pentagon and has quoted Bible verses, real and fictional, while speaking about the war against predominantly Muslim Iran.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, has displayed Bible verses alongside military footage in promotional videos.
Critics have argued Hegseth’s religiosity defies the military tradition of being secular and nonpartisan.
“The U.S. voluntarily going to war against a Muslim country with the military under the leadership of Pete Hegseth is exactly the kind of scenario that people like me were warning about before the election and throughout his appointment process,” religion scholar Matthew D. Taylor told The Associated Press.
Before serving in the Trump administration, Hegseth defended the medieval Crusades. He has multiple Christian tattoos using Crusader imagery, body art that caused a minor scandal during Hegseth’s confirmation process.
During his time in the military, a fellow service member reportedly flagged Hegseth as a possible “insider threat” due to the tattoos, given that white supremacist groups have used similar imagery.
