Furious Mormons riled up in religious spat after they were left off Trump's new categorization of Christians

By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 20:42, 7 June 2026 | Updated: 20:42, 7 June 2026 President Donald Trump's Department of Defense seems to have touched the nerve of a key constituency of American voters.  The Pentagon announced on Friday that the department had recategorized a list of known religious faiths, whittling the number of affiliations down from over 200 to just 31.  The move to consolidate the list brought the ire of Mormons, also known as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as they were included on the new list, but were no longer categorized as Christians. A bipartisan group of lawmakers expressed disappointment about this matter, including Utah's GOP Senators Mike Lee and Jon Curtis, as well as Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. 'Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches,' Lee, who is Mormon, wrote on X Saturday morning, sharing the new list of affiliations from the Pentagon. Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, quoted Lee's post, adding 'I don't know why but I am with you. This needs be fixed ASAP.' Lee's Utah colleagues also demonstrated their displeasure at the Pentagon's announcement. Fellow GOP Senator John Curtis, who is also a Mormon, wrote on X, '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.' Senator Mike Lee, Utah Republican, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in January, 2025 Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Washington The Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah '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 added. Republican Congressman Mike Kennedy, also of Utah, wrote on X, '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.' In another post on X made Sunday morning, Lee wrote, 'It's a new day Still a Latter-day Saint And we're still Christians—waiting for the Pentagon to make things right.' When asked for comment about the outrage from Lee, Curtis, and Gallego, the Pentagon directed the Daily Mail to Parnell's comments on X. '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,' Parnell said in a statement. '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.' Senator Mike Lee on X, shared a list of the new faith categorizations from the Pentagon Arizona Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego shared in Lee's disappointment on X Lee's fellow Republican colleague John Curtis also expressed disappointment at the Pentagon's categorizations shared by Parnell Parnell added that the department values the free exercise of religion and chaplains facilitate service members 'ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all.' The list creates broad categories of some Christian traditions - Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist - without specifying denominations within those traditions, which can span the theological and ideological spectrum. The military is religiously diverse, and nearly 70% of troops identify as Christian, according to a 2019 congressional report. Almost a quarter of troops were listed as other, unclassified or unknown. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.