The United States Department of Defense has implemented a revised system for categorizing the religious affiliations of military personnel, prompting formal objections from members of the Utah congressional delegation.

美國國防部實施了一套修訂後的軍人宗教信仰分類系統，引起了猶他州國會代表正式提出反對。

The Department of Defense recently initiated a transition from a 2017 framework, which recognized approximately 220 distinct religious codes, to a streamlined system comprising 31 categories. This administrative consolidation resulted in the removal of specific designations—including Atheism, Humanism, and various forms of Wicca—and the aggregation of numerous denominations into broader umbrella classifications. While the Pentagon maintains that personnel may continue to list non-categorized faiths on identification tags, the reduction in formal tracking codes has generated concerns regarding the erasure of minority belief systems and the accuracy of demographic data.

國防部最近將 2017 年的框架（當時認可約 220 個不同的宗教代碼）轉型為一個由 31 個類別組成的精簡系統。這次行政整合導致特定稱號被移除——包括無神論、人文主義及各種形式的威卡教（Wicca）——並將許多教派併入更廣泛的概括分類中。雖然五角大廈維持人員仍可在識別標籤上列出未分類的信仰，但正式追蹤代碼的減少，引發了關於少數信仰體系被抹除以及人口數據準確性的擔憂。

A primary point of contention involves the classification of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although the faith retains a distinct category, it was excluded from the subset of designations labeled as 'Christian.' This omission has been characterized by Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis as an unacceptable contradiction of the faith's foundational tenets, which explicitly define the organization as a Christian church. The senators have requested a corrective update to the policy to align the government's characterization with the religion's self-identified identity.

主要的爭議點涉及耶穌基督後期聖徒教會的分類。儘管該信仰保留了獨立類別，但被排除在標記為「基督教」的子集之外。參議員 Mike Lee 和 John Curtis 將此舉描述為對該信仰基本教義不可接受的矛盾，因為該組織明確將其定義為基督教教會。兩位參議員已要求對政策進行修正更新，使政府的描述與該宗教的自我認同保持一致。

In response to these criticisms, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell asserted that the restructuring is strictly logistical. The administration characterized the previous system as 'unmanageable' and maintained that the consolidation is intended to optimize the capacity of chaplains to assess unit demographics and allocate spiritual resources. Furthermore, the Department of Defense emphasized its commitment to First Amendment protections, stating that the revised codes are not intended to validate the legitimacy of any specific faith nor to establish a list of approved religions.

針對這些批評，五角大廈發言人 Sean Parnell 主張此次重組純屬後勤考量。行政部門將之前的系統描述為「無法管理」，並堅持認為整合旨在優化軍中牧師評估部隊人口分布及分配屬靈資源的能力。此外，國防部強調其對憲法第一修正案保護的承諾，表示修訂後的代碼並非旨在驗證任何特定信仰的合法性，亦非要建立一份核准宗教名單。

The Department of Defense continues to defend the logistical necessity of the consolidated religious codes despite ongoing pressure from legislators to rectify the classification of the Latter-day Saint faith.

儘管立法者持續施壓要求修正後期聖徒信仰的分類，國防部仍然堅持整合宗教代碼是後勤上的必要做法。