The most common claim from Mormons was that Christian is in the name, as in “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” and that the doctrinal differences are secondary. However, using the same vocabulary does not mean we are using the same dictionary. When it comes to the contrast between Mormonism and Christianity, the differences make all the difference in the world.  

On Monday, the Pentagon announced that it would update again its updated list of recognized religious groups, which reduced the number from 180 to 31.

The purpose of revising the list was to “streamline the [Department of War] collection of religious preferences for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.” On the new list, in addition to groups such as Agnostics, Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, and two catch-all’s of “No Religion” and “Other Religion,” 22 groups were listed as “Christian.” 

However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often known as the Mormon Church, was not labeled “Christian” like the Baptists, Roman Catholics, Methodists, and many others. Oddly, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists were labeled “Christian,” but Latter-day Saints were not. And that sparked enough significant outrage that the DoW has now revised its new list again, removing the “Christian” designation from all groups. 

This satisfied Senator Mike Lee of Utah, the loudest critic of the original list, demanding in a post on X, “Can anyone tell me why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches?” The answer was, apparently, “yes.” Christians from across doctrinal traditions responded to the senator that the most important reason is that the Mormon religion is not Christian.  

Of course, it did not make sense to deprive Mormonism of the label while including Jehovah’s Witnesses or Christian Scientists. And, as the DoW admitted, “The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates, but instead to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks.” Still, the debate about what it means to be Christian clearly needed to happen.  

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