For nearly a decade, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been engaged in a top-down rebrand meant partly to solidify its focus and bona fides as a Christian religion.
The U.S. Department of Defense, led by conservative evangelical Pete Hegseth, appears unconvinced.
On Friday, spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed on social media a report that the department had trimmed its list of recognized religious affiliations, used by its chaplains, from more than 200 to 31.
The Latter-day Saint faith was among those to make the cut. But there was a catch.
The list denotes 20 faiths as Christian, including Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Baptist and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Not, however, the Utah-based faith.
Asked by The Salt Lake Tribune if this omission was intentional, a member of the department’s press team pointed to the statement posted by Parnell.
The Office of the Secretary of War is announcing a significant change to the Department’s categorization of religious affiliation. In a long overdue move, we reduced the list from over 200 unmanageable categories to 31. With this move, we are returning to the original intent of… https://t.co/dgHX5ytzjJ pic.twitter.com/eho537O08J — Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) June 5, 2026
“This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of ‘officially approved’ religions,” he wrote. “Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups.”
However, an accompanying video by Hegseth seemed to suggest the change wasn’t entirely one of streamlining bureaucracy.
“In previous administrations, our Chaplain Corps was infected by political correctness and secular humanism,” he said. “…Faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care. We started correcting that drift [in December], and today we’re going further.”
Asked if the church planned to respond, a spokesperson for the faith pointed to the FAQ portion of its website. It reads: “Latter-day Saints believe God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to save all mankind from death and their individual sins. Jesus Christ is central to the lives of church members.”
Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis, both members of the church, took to social media Saturday to condemn the seeming snub, with Curtis stating he is “working now to ensure a correction is made.”
Among those eliminated were Unitarian Universalists, various Wiccans, deists, atheists and others, according to Military.com, the first to report the news.
We are at the stage where the ingroup is restricting. Cool.
The government recognizing some religions and not others is contrary to the founding principles. Too bad the Supreme Court is corrupted by all those Opus Dei reactionaries, otherwise the regulation would be thrown out immediately as unconstitutional.
That’s cause there not. They’re Mormons. They believe in Christian fan fiction, not actual Christianity. Pretty sure they don’t even teach the bible, as least not as much as the BoM.
Broken Clocks. All religions are fake anyway.
They do teach the bible, but not in the same way. The Book of Mormon is an addendum/supplement to the bible, and they use it to help “understand” what the bible “really” means, and they use the bible to clarify things in the BoM as well.
Basically, they carry and read both.
Well IDK if it was you that downvoted me but thanks for basically confirming what I said. The Book of Mormon is their one true gospel, the bible being supplimental material.
My instance has downvotes disabled.
Jesus that sounds awful
I think that since they believe Jesus is the gatekeeper to Heaven, they do qualify (according to Jesus).
I understand Christian reluctance to accept Mormons as “neighbors in Christ”, as it is a more modern sect and was a blatant scam to the point of absurdity with no mysterious missing pieces to tantalize the imagination.
Maybe this reveals more about Christianity then they would like.
I’ve read the Book of Mormon, it’s weird, almost silly.
Among those eliminated were Unitarian Universalists, various Wiccans, deists, atheists and others, according to Military.com, the first to report the news.
Weren’t the fuckin’ “Founding Fathers” deists? lol
That was what jumped out at me too. Yes, they were (depending on the individuals and how you interpret their various letters and essays on the matter) either deists or Unitarians. Thomas Paine wrote the famous deist essay Age of Reason, for example.
Basically “God created us, but has been hands-off ever since. It’s up to us to create a good world where people can exist in harmony, instead of counting on God to do it.”
If you believe Yeshua is the ‘Son of God’ and died for our sins, you are a Christian. It is that simple. Nobody else other than Christians believe it. Mormons believe it. They are Christian.
Sean Parnell confirmed on social media a report that the department had trimmed its list of recognized religious affiliations, used by its chaplains, from more than 200 to 31.
I’m curious which others were dropped. That’s a lot of faiths.
They dropped atheism and I’m not even sure how that works.
“What religion are you?”
“Oh, I’m not religious, I don’t really believe in any religion.”
“…I said, what religion are you?”
Have they ever been Christians with the crazy stuff they do and believe?
They believe in and follow the teachings of Christ as the center of the religion. So yes.
Muslims also believe in Jesus. Does that make them Christian as well?
No, Christ isn’t the center of it. Christ to Muslims is like Abraham to Christians in a way. It’s not a perfect analogy but gets the gist across.
I’d define a Christian as someone that thinks Jesus of Nazareth’s time on earth and his teachings were the most supernaturally important of anyone ever.
Muslim’s believe Muhammad’s teachings were more important. I think Bahai’s revere Jesus similarly to muslims. I don’t really know what Mormons believe, but I think they’d meet my threshold for Christendom. The fact that they also want to be called Christian is a major tick in their favour.
Now wait a second. As the beloved prophet John Wayne (Hallowed be his name) said, “Hold your horses”.
I am an ordained minister in the ULC (Universal Life Church - I know it sounds like a life insurance policy gig - but I did pay like $75 for the full Reverend package), does that make me non-Christian.
In truth, there are Jewish Christians, Hindu Christians, Scientology Christians, Latter Day Saint Christians, secular Christians, Wiccan Christians, Islamic Christians, even female, gay and black Christians (NOOOOOO! )
I don’t think you can pigeon-hole anybody into anything. There are literally 8.3 billion religions in the world right now. Your perspective/interpretation of God, Christianity, atheism, creationism, Jainism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islamism, feminism,… is completely different than mine.
How are there Jewish Christians?
I love this.
You might be asking why? Every Mormon I know is a staunch Trump supporter. The fact that it’s coming back on them so quickly is just chef’s kiss.
The thing is, when you get into the actually truly religious Christians (the mormons, the jehovah’s witnesses, etc), you will find a large percentage of them are good people who are so filled with the actual “Love of the Lord” that a guy like Trump can’t get into their heads. They’re immune to his hateful bullshit.
Doesn’t mean they’re immune to buying the regular Republican bullshit about the economy or military or whatever issues draw them to the right. They’re still in a cult, just not the hateful wing of it.
Half the Mormons I know hate his guts. But that’s sample size and social bias, probably. The only Mormons I willingly still associate with hate the dude’s fucking guts.
My sister converter to the faith in like 2007, I think? She was always a-political, like to the point of not really having paid attention whatsoever from my understanding (we did not grow up together). While she is still a member officially, and religiously believes, she has left the state of Utah, left the church, no longer attends, and her and her husband don’t really associate with any other mormons after 2016. The hatefulness of Trump being supported by her community really upset her and she had to leave. The final nail in the coffin, the thing that spurred her to get genuinely politically active, was Israel/Gaza. Now I don’t think the church would take her back if she begged. Not that she would. Lol
It’s gonna be so fun to have a so-called “government” increasingly getting into the business of the No True
Scotsman, er Xtian, game…Nothing like gatekeeping your imaginary friend club…
Leopards have a steady diet of faces these days.
I’d feel bad for the Mormons, but they’re a bunch of shitheads, like most religious organizations.
As a Thelemite, we don’t expect to be included in the first place.
Are there any communities here on Lemmy for thelema? Not a practitioner myself, but I love learning about it. And anthroposophy.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
I started one on Lemmy World when I first joined, but abandoned it when I moved to DB0 due to lack of interest from other users. I would be happy to start one on DB0 if people were interested, and I am always open to DM’s if you have any questions or would like to discuss it. I would never try to convert anyone, but I’m always available to any aspirant or interested party. I consider it part of my personal duty as a magician.
Love is the law, love under will.
(Apologies for the weird mumbo jumbo at the beginning and end of that, it is a Thelema thing that makes sense when you’re initiated. Thanks for understanding or tolerating it to those who think I’m a weirdo, lol.)
Thelema has always been super fascinating to me. I’d love to learn more if you have resources to direct me towards. There’s actually a Lemmy server specifically for religions. I started one over there for Episcopalians, but it’s been so long I’ll have to dig up the info on it as I don’t remember the sever name. Philosophy and religions subs are the thing I miss most from the other site
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
I think I’ll start a Thelema community when I’m back home at my computer, and I’ll send you the info when I do. Thanks for your interest—it has reignited my desire to have a place on Lemmy for people to learn about the Law.
Here are resources for you:
https://sacred-texts.com/oto/index.htm This is an online collection of our sacred texts. The ones marked class A are considered to be channeled from supra-human contact as the result of magickal operations. Our primary text is Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law) which is document CCXX in this list.
https://m.youtube.com/@Arcanumluminarium/videos?ra=m
Our primary fraternal organization is the Ordo Templi Orientis. Lon Milo DuQuette is the archbishop of the OTO, and he does daily videos that are easily digestible for a new person who is interested in Thelema. This link is a collection of those videos, and new ones come out almost every single day.https://m.youtube.com/@TempleoftheSilverStar?ra=m
The Temple of the Silver Star is an academic and initiatory organization that both teaches and performs the rituals of Thelema. They have instructional videos, as well as books on how to live your day to day life as a modern Thelemite. Their founder, David Shoemaker, can be reached via Instagram or email for questions and initiatory possibilities.Further suggested reading would be Perdurabo by Richard Kaczynski, which is a scholarly biography of the life and teachings of Aleister Crowley. Also, I would recommend Living Thelema by David Shoemaker for a handbook about living life as a Thelemite in the new millennium. Another good one is Adventures of a Magus, which is a textbook style guide to performing our rituals with included diagrams and pictures—it is great for visualizing what this stuff actually looks like. Lastly, I’d recommend In The Center of the Fire by James Wasserman for a history of the modern OTO as it was reformed in the mid 70’s.
I would like to add that the best way to find out if Thelema is bullshit or not is simply to try it out. There is no commitment required to do our rituals (do what thou wilt, after all). I became a Thelemite because I tried it and it worked. It defies logic sometimes, but it has transformed me as a person exactly as advertised. Maybe it’s my brain chemistry that is wired for this and other people aren’t, maybe I’m delusional, or maybe magick is real on some fundamental level—I choose not to look a gift horse in the mouth. The practices of Thelema have made me a more confident, open minded, brave, and compassionate person, plus my love life got way more exciting and I met a bunch of cool friends. To me, that is delivery of the only promise we make: that you will Know Yourself through these practices.
I have been (and currently am) a member of multiple initiatory organizations, and I have never been asked to do anything that violates my morals or that I believe is harmful to anyone. I have been tested and pushed to find my limits, but it has all been consensual and joyous, even after all these years. Results may vary, but I feel safe in recommending the path to anyone since my experience and the experience of my friends has been largely positive.
Lastly, if you would like to meet some real life Thelemites, the best way to do so is to visit an OTO lodge. They are in most states in the US, as well as many countries around the world. Their primary public ritual, the Gnostic Mass, can be attended by anyone who shoots them an email and expresses interest.
https://a.co/d/0gYBMq61
All rituals have been published in books and are only secret as a matter of personal honor, so if you have anxiety about any part of the system, you can pick up a copy of The Secret Rituals of the OTO and read up on exactly what will happen in each grade. That said, there is a true beauty in going in blind—it will give you a raw version of the experience that I believe makes initiation more impactful. That decision is very personal though so…do what thou wilt.Love is the law, love under will.
Okay, so it was the formatting of my Lemmy app that made that post look so intimidating. That was a very informative read, and you’re excellent at writing.
I’m interested. I’m a weird hodgepodge of things, episcopal, Hindu, daoist (Jesus Christ, autocorrect tried to make daoist into “rapist” o.o), increasingly Buddhist, and I’m always interested in learning more.
Would you say it is compatible with a nondualist worldview?
