Service members and chaplains are raising alarms as a deadline nears for troops to choose a religion from a sharply reduced list approved by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon.
The Defense Department is cutting the military’s recognized religious affiliations from 211 to 31, an 85 percent reduction, according to a May memo obtained by MS NOW, and only nine of the remaining options are non-Christian faiths.
The Air Force has told active-duty airmen to make their selections by Friday, Oct. 16, while a separate Marine Corps administrative message says service members who don’t choose a new affiliation in time will have one selected for them.
Pentagon officials describe the change as an administrative update. Richard Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, said the new designations would give chaplains the “accurate demographic data they need to provide tailored resources and support to our Service members, while continuing to respect their individual convictions.”
At least six current and former military members interviewed by MS NOW rejected that explanation.
“The push is to a Christian identity,” said a former military chaplain who now vets future chaplains for the Pentagon and describes himself as a devout Christian. “This nation was not founded as a Christian nation.”
An Air National Guard member whose minority religion was removed from the list told the outlet the change is part of an effort to build a “Christian army, essentially,” and said it violates the First Amendment.
“I found that very alarming and upsetting because we don’t tend to ask for much as service members,” said the airman, who ended up selecting “other religion” on the new form.
A civilian who has worked at the Pentagon for a decade said the atmosphere has changed.
“Christian nationalism is in, and everybody else is out, and it is palpable in that building,” the employee told MS NOW.
The cuts come as Hegseth creates a new Office of Religious Affairs to “elevate spiritual readiness” across the military.
He has also launched a recruiting campaign called “Send Me,” built on an Old Testament verse, and holds monthly worship services at the Pentagon that feature evangelical figures – including self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson, founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches that counts the defense secretary as a member.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued over those services in March.
Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said hundreds of service members have filed complaints with his group over Hegseth’s rhetoric.
“It’s ripping and tearing them apart,” Weinstein said. “It destroys good order, morale, discipline and especially unit cohesion.”
A soldier deployed overseas told MS NOW about seeing a poster of Jesus firing a mortar round at an Army battalion headquarters.
The Pentagon defended Hegseth’s approach.
“The Department of War protects the constitutional right of every service member and civilian employee to practice their faith without coercion or discrimination,” press secretary Kingsley Wilson said. “Despite the Left’s efforts to remove our Christian heritage from our great nation, Secretary Hegseth is among those who embrace it.”
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