LATTER-DAY COMPLAINTS

Republicans Rage at Pentagon Pete Over ‘Repugnant’ Religion Move

The self-declared “Secretary of War” has angered Mormons by suggesting that the Defense Department no longer considers LDS part of the Christian faith.

Pete Hegseth has enraged top Mormon officials in the Republican Party by declaring that their faith no longer counts as Christian belief as far as the Defense Department is concerned.

“It’s just repugnant to any sense of decency, any sense of our common heritage and our common belief that the government needs to not weigh in on doctrinal disputes between various religious denominations,” Mike Lee, the MAGA Republican Senator for Utah and himself an adherent of the Mormon faith, said in a video tirade posted on X late Sunday.

Lee began his clip by describing prohibitions on government interference with religious belief as a key tenet of the freedoms afforded to Americans under the Constitution. “I’m imploring people at the Pentagon to reconsider this—and not just reconsider it, but undo it,” he concluded. “Secretary Hegseth—tear down that wall! This is not cool! Get rid of it, get rid of it now!”

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The Defense Department announced Friday that it is cutting down the number of religious identities servicemembers can register on their personnel records from more than 200 to just 31.

Members of the military can now identify as Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha’i, or agnostic, but not Wiccan, pagan, humanist, or atheist. There remain 22 Christian denominations to choose from. Mormonism is not one of them.

Hegseth’s press secretary, Sean Parnell, described it as a “long overdue move.” He insisted the department is not casting aspersions on the sincerity of religions removed from the list, so much as trying to streamline support for religious servicemembers.

“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 said.

“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,” he added.

Ranking Mormon members of the Republican Party are having none of it, and Lee is certainly not alone in his outrage.

“The Pentagon’s decision to list The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apart from other Christian faiths is wrong and needs to be corrected,” Rep. Mike Kennedy, also of Utah, wrote in an X post Sunday.

“[We] stand alongside many Christians of every tradition in following the teachings of Christ. We only ask to be accurately portrayed. I strongly urge the Department to correct the record,” he added.

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Lee’s fellow Utah senator, John Curtis, also a Mormon, slammed the exclusion on the grounds that members of his faith “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 added. “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.”

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The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for further comment on this story.

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