Utah delegation defends LDS Church as 'Christian' after new Pentagon classification - East Idaho News
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Utah delegation defends LDS Church as ‘Christian’ after new Pentagon classification

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Cassidy Wixom and Bridger Beal-Cvetko, KSL

The Church Office Building for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City is seen in this undated photo.
The Church Office Building for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City is seen in this undated photo. | Steve Griffin, Deseret News via KSL
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SALT LAKE CITY (KSL) — Utah Sens. John Curtis and Mike Lee are pushing back after the Pentagon changed its categorizations for chaplains to not classify members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as “Christian.”

The Republicans expressed their displeasure with the move on social media, and Curtis said he is working to correct the issue.

“Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic, service-oriented individuals in our country. They are also unequivocally Christian — just look at who is in the name of the Church,” he posted on X.

His post stemmed from Secretary of War Senior Advisor Sean Parnell announcing the department made a “significant change” to its 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 collecting this data — to allow our chaplains and religious support personnel to provide the best spiritual care to our warfighters,” Parnell said on X.

Parnell said the reduction is not meant to create a list of “officially approved religions” or to “make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief.” The change is designed to allow chaplains to look at the religious composition of their units to determine structure resources for “warfighters of all faith groups,” he said.

“I’m a Latter-day Saint, and I am a Christian. Christ’s name is on our Church for a reason. This must be corrected,” a post on X from Sen. Mike Kennedy said.

Lee also chimed in on X on Saturday morning, asking: “Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches?”

“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,” he added in a separate post.

The Department of War letter on the official change states it will “enhance delivery of targeted religious support from Chaplaincy.” Service members will not be limited to the new list of religious affiliation codes when selecting information on their identification tags, the letter states.

The new list of religious affiliation codes identifies 21 Christian religions with a second identifying name, but then lists The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on its own.

Some other Christian faiths have questioned whether the Church of Jesus Christ is in fact Christian due to differing beliefs. But many members of Utah’s predominant religion have taken issue with not being counted as Christians, as the faith is centered around the teachings of Jesus Christ.

“It is unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the religion’s own foundational tenets. I am working now to ensure a correction is made,” Curtis posted on X.

The new list of recognized faiths also drops minority groups, including deists, druids, pagans and various Wiccans, among others, according to Military.com.

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