Pentagon cuts recognized military faith codes from ~211 to 31, dropping minority faiths

A May 20, 2026 memorandum signed by Anthony Tata, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, sharply reduced the number of religions the U.S. military officially recognizes, cutting the list of "religious affiliation codes" from roughly 211 to 31. First reported by Military.com on June 4, 2026 and corroborated by Religion News Service, the change is the first revision since a March 2017 expansion that grew the list to about 211 codes. The memo directs that the revised codes take effect within 60 days and states that service members will not be limited to the listed codes when selecting information for their dog tags.

The reduction drops an estimated 180 minority faiths and worldviews, among them atheists, Asatru, deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, humanists, New Age churches, pagans, Rosicrucians, shamans, spiritualists, members of The Troth, Unitarian Universalists, and various Wiccan traditions, while retaining agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and a wide range of Christian denominations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who directed the change as part of a broader chaplain-corps overhaul previewed in March 2026, described the prior system as having "ballooned to well over 200 faith codes" that were "impractical and unusable," noting that most religious service members use only a handful of codes.

Critics, including chaplains and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, warned that de-recognizing minority and non-theistic beliefs undermines the free-exercise guarantee and the availability of chaplain support to affected service members, since adherents left categorized as "other" can struggle to obtain pastoral care. By collapsing the recognized-faith list in a way that burdens specific minority religions and non-theistic groups while preserving majority faiths, the policy fits religious-favoritism-in-policy, with a secondary discriminatory-policy dimension because religion is a protected characteristic. It sits alongside the administration's other religion-in-government actions, including Hegseth's Christian prayer services at the Pentagon.