Pete Hegseth 'backtracks' on 'repugnant' religious policy after GOP beatdown

[riversedge]

I missed this earlier this week.



Pete Hegseth 'backtracks' on 'repugnant' religious policy after GOP beatdown

https://www.rawstory.com/hegseth-religious-policy-mormons/?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=6a2742736b7e31000181c940&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

David June 8, 2026 1:57PM ET


Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reversed course Monday on a Pentagon religious classification policy that had enraged Republican allies — after Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) called it "repugnant," phoned President Donald Trump directly, and demanded an immediate fix.

The controversy stemmed from a May 20 memo, first reported by Military.com, signed by Under Secretary of Defense Anthony Tata, that slashed the military's religious affiliation codes from 211 to just 31. The overhaul was designed to help chaplains better track and serve troops' beliefs — but the initial redone list left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints out of the Christian category entirely, classifying it separately from every other faith that professes belief in Jesus Christ.

The backlash was swift and bipartisan. Lee, a Utah Republican and Latter-day Saint himself, posted a video Sunday calling the policy an affront to "tens of thousands" of LDS service members. "It's just repugnant to any sense of decency, any sense of our common heritage," he said. Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) called it "unacceptable." Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) insisted Hegseth explain the exclusion to "hundreds of thousands of Latter-day Saints veterans."..........................







Ron Filipkowski‬
‪@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social‬
· 2d
Mike Lee has posted 37 times in the last 24 hours about Hegseth removing the Mormons from the Pentagon’s approved list of recognized Christian denominations.

Mike Lee has posted 37 times in the last 24 hours about Hegseth removing the Mormons from the Pentagon’s approved list of recognized Christian denominations.

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2026-06-07T23:18:55.285Z

[marble falls]

1. I love they way they screw up so publicly without any clues.

[mountain grammy]

2. and what new enlightenment will Mike Lee take away from this shunning of Mormons?

NOTHING... Trust me, nothing.

[wcmagumba]

6. Well, the LDS, Jehovah's Witnesses and other groups you mentioned do consider themselves to be "Christian".

Not everyone adhere's to Canon Law which comes mainly from the Catholic tradition (as I understand it)...

[wnylib]

12. You are correct about Canon Law. It is the law of

the Roman Catholic Church and does not apply to or govern other Christian denominations.

The term Christian is usually applied to people who identify with trinitarian Christianity. But from the beginning of Christianity there have been various sects who identify as Christian because they follow the teachings of Jesus but do not/did not regard Jesus as divine, e.g. the Arians. Even today there are religious groups that identify as Christian, follow the teachings of Jesus, but regard him as a divinely inspired prophet, not a literally divine Son of God.

I would not regard Unitarians as Christian. The ones in my community include a variety of religious perspectives from various religions and models of spirituality.

In the end, though, it does not matter if a service member is Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Deist, any other faith, or has no faith. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion or to have no religion.

[PCIntern]

14. Or even Jewish!!!

[wnylib]

15. Oops. Sorry. Did not intentionally leave out Jewish.

But of course Jews are free to follow their faith or to be secular Jews, as guaranteed in the Constitution.

[PCIntern]

18. No worries!

[RockRaven]

7. There is no person in existence with the authority to gatekeep the term Christian.

The Canon Law you cite does not govern the usage of the term in the way you seem to think it does.

To save myself some time typing, this YouTube video covers it somewhat, and is less than 5 minutes long.

https://m.

[Laffy Kat]

8. Yep, I grew up Unitarian and although a non-creedal ....

Generally, we reject the concept of the trinity.

[Norrrm]

9. "under Canon law" --- Who, exactly, is subject to Canon law?

https://www.bing.com/search?q=canon+law+definition&form=ANNTH1&refig=6a29e98c37b34b85a64561bdb293d012&pc=LCTS&pq=canon+law&pqlth=9&assgl=20&sgcn=canon+law+definition&qs=LS&sgtpv=LS&smvpcn=0&swbcn=12&sctcn=0&sc=12-9&sp=2&ghc=0&cvid=6a29e98c37b34b85a64561bdb293d012&clckatsg=1&hsmssg=0

2. a collection or list of sacred books accepted as genuine:
........... Mormons also have such a list.
--------------------
Who is the ultimate earthly arbiter over all earthly religions?

[wcmagumba]

4. They didn't exactly "backtrack" from what I have read, they just removed the word "Christian" completely from the list..

So they still did not include LDS members as being Christian (which LDS members consider themselves to be) but just dumbed the list down. Hegseth is still a white Christian Nationalist in my book, still a repugnant douche bag of a human being.

[RockRaven]

5. He DID NOT backtrack.

The issue was that many denominations were listed as "Christian - [denomonation]" such as "Christian - Lutheran," or whatever. But when it came to LDS they skipped the "Christian - " umbrella prefix, which was seen as a nod to the longstanding Evangelical/fundie thing about LDS not being Xian.

In response to the furor, they DID NOT reverse that and add the prefix to LDS, as Mormons wanted.

Instead they removed the prefix from all of the other Xians. So for the example given above it now would read just "Lutheran" instead of "Christian - Lutheran" and so for all the rest too.

They would rather sacrifice being able to call Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and even Catholics "Christian" than have to call Mormons the same.

What that means is that Kegsbreath et al. are so committed to NOT calling Mormons "Christian" that they would rather not call every other denomination Xian than say that Mormons are.

[Norrrm]

10. What organization/committee/council made this list/decision? Who appointed them as the authority?

What organization/committee/council made this list/decision? Who appointed them as the authority?

Who are the members?

So far, the decisions have been made by secular authorities::::
1. signed by Under Secretary of Defense Anthony Tata,
2. backtracked/modified by Hegseth.

[DET]

11. Mike Lee sure does get touchy...

…when his own ox is gored. Yours? It’s all good.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. So, Atheists, Agnostics, Wiccans, Ethical Culturalists, Freethinkers, Humanists, etc.

are still "off the list"?

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

16. Hegseth hasnt backtracked on firing every Bkack person and woman or denying their promotions