Joshua Arnold -WashingtonStand.com
A recent streamlining effort in the U.S. military turned into a headache after it threw the Pentagon into the middle of a longstanding religious controversy. However, the U.S. Department of Defense found a solution to escape the controversy in short order, with a tactic both refreshing and surprising from a government agency. The U.S. Defense Department acknowledged the limits of its own authority.
In a move “to clarify the work of chaplains,” the U.S. Department of Defense last week shrunk the list of religious affiliation categories for servicemembers from a bloated 200 down to a more manageable size of 31. The new list still retained categories such as “Hindu (HI),” “Muslim (IS),” and “Jewish (JU),” as well as Christian subcategories, such as “Christian – Baptist (BA),” or “Christian – Pentecostal (PE),” which were all grouped together.
But one group was highly dissatisfied with the result. Mormons were listed simply as the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (CJ),” with no “Christian” prefix. This omission drew instant criticism from Mormon legislators, including both senators from Utah. “Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches?” tweeted Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah).