Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser issued the following statement in response to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth erasing religious identifications from the U.S. military, drastically cutting service members’ choices from 221 to 31, including eliminating atheists, humanists, and Wiccans, among others:
“Hegseth can’t erase the religion of servicemembers whose belief systems he finds less worthy without failing to honor his oath to support and defend the Constitution. Our brave service members deserve better.
“We’ve been worried about the infiltration of Christian Nationalism into our military for years—worries that intensified after the nomination of crusader and Fox News Host Pete Hegseth. AU warned Congress that he would reshape the U.S. military according to his Christian Nationalist ideology if he were nominated and he has been doing precisely that.”
In 2017, the Pentagon updated its Religion and Belief Codes, an official list of 221 religious identities from which service members could select. The options spanned a wide range of faiths and non-theist belief systems, including the three main movements within Judaism, additional Protestant groups, Humanism, and earth-based religions. As a result, the military had more accurate demographic information about its service members, allowing it to better plan for all service members’ religious support and assess the capabilities and requirements for chaplains. The change to only 31 Religious Affiliation Codes, deleting everything from Christian denominations to atheist, humanist, and Wiccan belief systems, could have significant negative impact on service members from a wide variety of faiths and beliefs.
Americans United is a religious freedom advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, AU educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
Liz Hayes
Associate Vice President of Communications
[email protected]
