The Department of Defense (DOD) has officially reduced its list of recognized religious faiths from over 200 to just 31.
This update, confirmed in a memorandum issued on May 20, 2026, and made public on June 4, marks the first major revision to the military’s faith codes in nearly a decade.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth initiated the change explaining that the previous system had become inefficient. He stated:
“The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes. It was impractical and unusable and many codes were never used at all.”
The DOD claims the move will “streamline the DoW collection of religious preferences for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.”
The revised list includes major traditions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.
However, numerous minority belief systems including Atheism, Paganism, Humanism and others have been excluded from the recognized list.
This has sparked significant criticism from advocacy groups.
Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation condemned the decision calling it “another absolute, clear, filthy and disgusting, unconstitutional, immoral and unethical attempt to force only the approved solution.”
The department has not commented on how this will impact service members whose belief are no longer officially recognized.
