/news/ — No Valhalla for Americans: DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List

Here is the full list:

Agnostic (AN)
Baha'i faith (BH)
Buddhism (BU)
Christian - Assemblies of God (AG)
Christian - Baptist (BA)
Christian - Brethren (BR)
Christian - Catholic (CA)
Christian - Church of Christ (CC)
Christian - Church of God (CG)
Christian - Church of the Nazarene (CN)
Christian - Episcopal/Anglican (EA)
Christian - Evangelical (EV)
Christian - Jehovah's Witnesses (JW)
Christian - Lutheran (LU)
Christian - Methodist (ME)
Christian - Non Denominational (ND)
Christian - Orthodox (OX)
Christian - Other (CO)
Christian - Pentecostal (PE)
Christian - Presbyterian (PR)
Christian - Quaker (QU)
Christian - Reformed (RE)
Christian - Scientist (SC)
Christian - Seventh Day Adventist (SA)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (CJ)
Hindu (HI)
Islam (Muslim) (IS)
Judaism (Jewish) (JU)
No Religion (NR)
Other Religions (OR)
Sikh (SI)

This restructuring of faith codes, which help identify service members as well as the military in planning for appropriated religious coverage to include them, has now excluded minority faith/worldview groups including Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick, New Age churches, Pagan, Rosicrucianism, Shaman, Spiritualists, Troth, Unitarian Universalists and various Wiccans.

It represents a stark change from the memo administered in 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first term. The Armed Forces Chaplains Board at the time endorsed a faith and belief code expansion “to standardize and better identify religious preferences recognized by the military services.”

That change at the time was said to better expand religious planning for multiple reasons, including better tracking for more accurate demographic data, better planning for religious support for the force, and providing a better assessment of the capabilities and requirements of each military service’s chaplain’s corps.

Military.com reached out to the DOD, asking what led to the drastic change and removal of countless faiths and beliefs, in addition to whether any concern was expressed by either service members or chaplains. The department was also asked whether members’ lack of individual support could hurt morale within the ranks.

The DOD did not respond to the inquiry.

Larger Push, 'Cultural Shift'

It follows a broader administrative push that critics have described as a military-wide ascent towards Christian theocracy, evidenced by Defense Secretary Pet Hegseth hosting Christian-based prayer services in the Pentagon auditorium with controversial speakers—as well as public statements invoking Scripture when describing the ongoing military operation in Iran, for example.

In December 2025, Hegseth announced his intention “to make the Chaplain Corps great again,” prioritizing religious liberty and practice in the military by executing a “top-down cultural shift, putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as physical and mental health.”

This latest action comes on the heels of Hegseth announcing chaplain reforms in March 2026. He said his department would be significantly streamlining the number of faith code affiliations for service members, including a separate but related change to replace rank insignia military chaplains wear on their work uniforms with religious insignia.

The faith and belief coding system, renamed to "religious affiliation codes,” was simply due to a system that had become too big, according to the secretary.

"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 82% of members who identify as religious use only six of the codes.

The secretary added that chaplains "are first and foremost called and ordained by God."

'Not the American Way'

A former U.S. Army chaplain who now serves as an endorser told Military.com the revised list is “horrible.”

“When I raised my hand to become an Army chaplain, I swore that I would support and defend the Constitution,” the individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Military.com. “The First Amendment is the free exercise of religion for everybody. That's what I was buying into.”

The individual said that oath years ago was never rescinded, which makes the new list “an excuse for the failure to provide the free exercise of religion for all people.”

“That's a tragedy and travesty, absolutely,” they said. “As far as I'm concerned, that's a violation of the United States Constitution.”

The individual said that in the Army chaplaincy, the prime directive is to perform or provide for the free exercise of religion of all service members and their families. Essentially, those who cannot be identified struggle to receive the help they may require.

They described it as a “not-so-hidden agenda.”

“There's a lot of faith groups out there that I particularly don't have an interest in, but there are service members who are sending their sons and daughters into the military, and they're expecting pastoral care for their sons and daughters as needed—and I don't think they're going to get it.

“All it takes is the chaplain to say, ‘Well, I don't see them on this list. I don't know how I can help you. Maybe go off the installation and see if you can find anybody who can work with you. Goodbye.' And that's it. That's not the American way.”

Changes Ebb and Flow Over Time

Another individual who also spoke anonymously to Military.com is a U.S. Army veteran who served from 2000 to 2010, including three tours in Iraq.

They are ordained in Wicca as a cleric priest, in Asatru as a Gothi, and as a Druid. And on the secular academic side, they hold a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling, divinity, and a doctorate of ministry in interreligious chaplaincy.

When the individual was notified about five days ago of the changes to the coding system, they were reminded of what happened to them more than 20 years ago. During their first deployment to Iraq, as a junior enlisted infantryman struggling with what they were seeing and doing in combat, they went to the unit chaplain for guidance.

The individual claimed that for the following eight months, that chaplain “took every opportunity to use their rank to try and evangelize and convert me.” Chaplain recruiting offices would hang up as soon as they found out that they were pagan, and it wasn't until 2007 that they were allowed to have “Pagan” identified on enlisted records and dog tags.

“One of the distinctive religious group leaders that I mentor came across the memorandum and forwarded it to me, and that rekindled that anger that I felt when I was actively discriminated against that started the path towards me becoming a civilian chaplain,” the individual told Military.com. “Except, it expanded beyond that because I have endorsed and mentored 26 different lay leaders on different military posts.”

The individual, who has attempted to correspond up the ranks to the chief of chaplains plus to Hegseth himself, said their studies have found that spiritual abuse or trauma affiliated with religious beliefs and affecting more than 8-in-10 service members can have negative ramifications like post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Having appropriate spiritual care is paramount for their well-being,” they said. “Stripping these codes, stripping the appropriate care aspects and leaving them identified as ‘other’ puts them at a risk of being re-traumatized or re-abused without it being intentional.

“As a licensed counselor and a chaplain and a priest, that is not something that I can idly stand by without pushing back against.”

'Middle Finger' to Constitution

The individuals who spoke with Military.com are two clients of among more than 100,000 represented by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), whose client base is roughly 95% Christian.

The organization’s co-founder, Mikey Weinstein, told Military.com that this new DOD list is a “middle finger to the United States Constitution’s separation of church and state.” The U.S. Air Force veteran said that codes like this have existed to perform services that sailors, soldiers, Marines, airmen or guardians want.

“Reducing the number of religious faiths from hundreds down to 31 is another absolute, clear, filthy and disgusting, unconstitutional, immoral and unethical attempt to force only the approved solution, getting closer and closer to Christian nationalism,” Weinstein said.

He compared the new list to the faiths and beliefs identified by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which recognizes more than 220 belief systems and has more than 80 emblems for headstones.

“So, if you're dead, you'll get your emblem,” Weinstein added. “But if you're alive, you can't even get it on your dog tags unless you qualify for one of these faith traditions that in the eyes of Hegseth and other Christian nationalists are worthy of recognition after years of all of the others being there.”

>>1518394
Petey is doing something the Democrats didn't have the balls to ever do, which is shitcanning all the trash religions and Christianity forks

>>1518458
your life is embarrassing

As a vet who, at the time of his service, would have considered himself a Satanist, this is a great call. No poont recognizing all that nonsense.

>>1518461
0/10 larp

>>1518460
You sit around all day in your favela waiting for people to post in these shitty threads

>>1518466
you live in a favela?

>>1518394
>Recognises every schizo cultist interpretation of Christianity
>Drops everything else
Americans are an embarrassment.

>>1518472
Christian nationalism, baby! Better enjoy Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam for now, because that shit ain’t gonna last.
Judaism can stay, though :)

>Mormons excluded from the Christian tag

>jedi and pastafarians mad they got reduced to "other"

>>1518398
>you can't even get it on your dog tags
If that's all they've got to whinge about then the athiest/druid/shaman tier of religious larp is going to get laughed out of the country entirely.

At least they still have the Constitution.

>>1518473
You know the big three are going to be there forever regardless of what the people want right?

It is hilarious that baby killers think they are getting into any kind of heaven.

I guess the Buddhists are ““technically”” fine though it surprises me that there are any in the military at all. A reminder that all religion is bullshit.

Its weird that people who fetishize fucking babies really hate people they claim kill babies, especially since those people don't kill babies

Its not really, but its weird that they keep pretending to be the sane ones

The people fucking and killing babies are the same religious nuts. I am not surprised that child rape immediately comes to the mind of the religicuck unprompted. It is all they have on their minds 24/7.

>>1518393 (OP)
It's impractical for a christian to know or do anything not christian. If you dropped all the christian religions, you could have 1 person with a binder with 200 tabs in it.

It's hard to say that anything a republican does comes at the direction of any single republican. Every republican is always just acting like they are only representing the party, and it's not actually their idea. Any single republican knows nothing, so it was none of their ideas and all of them's idea.

>>1518458
but every christianity fork is there. they really just dropped all the forks of Buddhism like Shinto

>>1518393 (OP)
>>1518394
The most retarded part is that half of the founding fathers were Deists, not Christian. They would have revolted at the idea of a Christian nation. That's why so much of the constitution was 'under god' and not 'under jesus'.

>>1518514
Sure but at least include the religion of the people who founded the country and wrote the document they have to follow to the letter. Taking it out just to have more nutjob forks of Christianity such as the talking golden rocks in a hat christcucks is the same as saying that the constitution just doesn't fucking matter anymore.

btw, Unitarians are out too, there were more Unitarian Presidents than Catholic ones.

>>1518393 (OP)
While we're on that subject, native american religions are protected by name in AIRFRA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Religious_Freedom_Act
Those religions are still practiced today, the code talkers of WW2 practiced Shaminism, as they were straight from injun reserves.

So if nothing else, it's probably going to get overturned because AIRFRA takes precedence over Heggy having a melty about some inane right-wing christian nationalist movement, which is just code for "Who sucks jew dick the best".

Given our current DoD leadership, I'm surprised it wasn't just Christian - Evangelical (USA), Heretic (D), and Heathen (D)

you white devils take our land and now you take our religion
you couldn't even include my Anishinaabe?

I shall worship Gitche Manitouin private.

>>1518474
And Mike Lee is seething on xitter over it
lmao

>>1518474
The Magic Underwear Cult go by Latter Day Saints now, since their marketing department determined Mormon was a liability.

>>1518393 (OP)
>Agnostics
>>1518394
>Agnostic (AN)
How exactly is "I don't know what to believe" a faith and/or religion? Why wouldn't it just fall under No Religion (NR)? What are some of the dogma and religious rituals of agnosticism?

>>1518683
>Why wouldn't it just fall under No Religion (NR)?
It would. But you could make the same argument for Christianity falling under Judaism.

Agnosticism is a subcategory of no religion. So is atheism. So is spiritualism absent religious tradition.

>>1518684
>make the same argument for Christianity falling under Judaism.
Not really, Judaism is about how the descendants of Judah are the supreme people while Christianity is about how followers of Christ are the supreme people.

>>1518684
>But you could make the same argument for Christianity falling under Judaism.
No, christianity and judaism both have well defined canon and dogmatic ritualistic expression of the tenets of the canon that depend on trusting the canon rather than directly experiencing its lessons, so they are both forms of religion and faith, but agnosticism has none of that and doesn't fall under the categories of either religion or faith.

>>1518685
Potato potato. Same God, different specifics. Christianity started out as a sect of Judaism and was considered as such for hundreds of years.

>>1518686
>but agnosticism has none of that and doesn't fall under the categories of either religion or faith.
Neither does no religion. What the fuck is your point? I didn't say agnosticism was a religion or faith. I said it is a subset of no religion.

If it makes you feel any better, think of it as
>No Religion - Agnostic (AN)
>No Religion - Other (NR)

>>1518690
>Same God, different specifics.
Religion is all about the specifics, otherwise all monotheistic gods are the same god and the only choices would be monotheism, polytheism, or none.

>Christianity started out as a sect of Judaism
No, it was a rejection of judaism, christ specifically called judaists the synogogue of satan.

> I said it is a subset of no religion.
No, I >>1518683 said it was a subset of no religion and you agreed, the official list says it is something different which was the point of my post that you don't seem to understand.

>I didn't say agnosticism was a religion or faith.
But the official list does and the fact that doesn't make any sense was the point of my original post.

>If it makes you feel any better,
No, that doesn't make me feel anything, there is no reason to add numerous no religion categories and there is really no reason to add no religion to a list of religion affiliations at all, just leave it blank, the category is superfluous.

>>1518693
>Religion is all about the specifics
Yeah and Christianity is specifically a Jewish sect just as Judaism is a sect of Yahwism alongside Samaritanism.

>No, it was a rejection of judaism, christ specifically called judaists the synogogue of satan.
You really shouldn't reject reality like this. It's not healthy.

>the official list says it is something different
The official list also says Christianity is different from Judaism. As I stated, nothing about the list says subsets can't be carved out of the sets to which they would otherwise belong. This is a normal thing sometimes done with groupings, like when mammals are treated as separate from fish. It's generally not best practice, but it happens all the fucking time in categorization. It's called a fucking paraphylum.

>No, that doesn't make me feel anything, there is no reason to add numerous no religion categories and there is really no reason to add no religion to a list of religion affiliations at all, just leave it blank, the category is superfluous.
First of all, "leave it blank" is a godawful suggestion for record keeping. You fucking placeholder that shit. Second of all, this is in part about collecting demographic data and the dipshit that came up with this list presumably thought the military would want to track agnostics and areligious non-agnostics separately.

While bitching about the form factor you failed to consider anyone might ever want to fucking use this data.

>>1518700
Christianity and Judaism are in fact distinct religions with easily distinguished articles of faith. They are mutually exclusive to each other specifically in terms of recognition of fellow members.
If you really want to argue about this you’ll have to determine, in order to be correct, that all religions are the same religion.

All this cope from the last 20 posts just so no one has to admit Hegseth wants a Christian/Jewish supremacist state. "MUH SAME GOD-" shut the fuck up. Unitarian was taken off the list so you can't pull that here.

>>1518393 (OP)
But why? Why is there even a recognized religion list in the first place?

>>1518768
>with easily distinguished articles of faith
Yes, different sects can be distinct. I don't think your average person would confuse a Mormon and a Coptic. That's not an argument for two groups being separate religions. What is publicly considered to be separate religions is about social acceptance, not how distinct religious traditions are. Messianic Jews are considered Christians despite identifying as Jews. Mormons on this list aren't because this list was compiled by someone that rejects accepting them within the Christian faith. Judaism and Samaritanism are considered separate religions by most people despite being more similar than the furthest apart sects of many religions.

Ultimately what weren't discussing isn't how groups can be grouped, but how they "should" be grouped taxonomically. You are bitching in this thread that Agnosticism should be grouped under no religion because they form a clade. WELL GUESS WHAT ALSO FORMS A FUCKING CLADE!

>If you really want to argue about this you’ll have to determine, in order to be correct, that all religions are the same religion.
Not all religions are part of the same tradition. Scientology has fuck all to do with Luciferism.

Look, dipshit. You don't get to bitch about them not doing cladistics right and then bitch about what would happen if they did.

>>1518814
Mormons aren’t Christians because Mormons have a different belief system, and they believe in prophets after Jesus.
Scientology isn’t even a religion it’s a cult.
Agnosticism isn’t a religion because it doesn’t have a belief system and it requires a qualifier.
Messianic Jews are indeed a Christian sect.
I don’t even understand why you’re arguing about this stuff it’s all very clearly defined.

If you’re going to count Mormons as Christians you have to count Muslims as Christians too.

>>1518947
>No True Scotsman: The Post
arbitrary standards are arbitrary. Also I never argued agnosticism is a religion.
>it’s all very clearly defined.
Which is why everyone on earth has believed everything you said for as long as each of those groups has existed.
>>1518948
>If you’re going to count Mormons as Christians you have to count Muslims as Christians too.
An argument could certainly be made that they are, but I'd view them more as an orange to Christianity's mandarin. They aren't an evolution of Christianity, but Christianity hybridized with other teachings.