Pentagon reduces number of military’s recognized religious codes from over 200 faiths down to 31

The Pentagon sent out a memo Thursday that officially dropped 180 faiths from its list of “religious affiliation codes,” trimming it down to just 31 faith codes instead.The move comes after War Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered military chaplains in March to wear an insignia on their uniforms that displays their religious affiliation instead of one showing their rank.
Hegseth teased the order in March by stating that the Pentagon will use 31 faith codes for the insignia, instead of the over 200 that previously existed, and that a significant majority of service members only used six of the codes.
Undersecretary of Defense Anthony Tata released the memo, stating the change will “streamline the DoW collection of religious preferences for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy,” according to Military.com.
“The new list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of service members and to provide religious support activities that align with service members’ personal faith and practices,” Tata said. 
The new list includes Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and Christian-based groups like Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists, among others. 
The list removes codes for Atheism, Asatru, Eckankar, New Age churches, Paganism, Spiritualism, Troth, Unitarian Universalism and various Wiccan groups.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

Read Full Article: https://justthenews.com/government/security/pentagon-reduces-militarys-recognized-religions-list-down-31-over-200-faiths?utm_source=justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=external-news-aggregators