Arizona opinion: Pentagon's recognized religions change is dangerous for all

Recently, the Department of Defense restructured its official list of recognized religious affiliations used by military chaplains. The department reduced the list from more than 200 categories to 31. The stated reason was administrative efficiency. The actual result is something far more significant, and far more dangerous.

For the first time in American history, the federal government has created an official designation of which faiths are Christian and which are not. Previously, faiths were listed by name and by code. No government document drew a line between Christian and non-Christian. That line did not exist.

It does now.

Why did the Pentagon make the recognized religion change?

The new list labels 21 faiths as Christian. Among them: Catholic, Baptist, Orthodox Christian and Jehovah's Witnesses. Not among them: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with its 17 million members worldwide, and with deep roots across Arizona. Also not among them: many faith traditions practiced by American service members. More faiths are off this list than on it.

Utah's congressional delegation responded swiftly, calling the exclusion of their church unacceptable and demanding correction. Their frustration is understandable. But the outrage is aimed at the wrong target. The problem is not that the LDS Church was left off the Christian list. The problem is that the government created a Christian list at all. That is not the government's business. It has never been the government's business. The moment we accept that it is, even to correct an exclusion we find offensive, we have conceded the very principle the Constitution was written to protect.

Article VI of the Constitution states plainly that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for any office or public trust. The First Amendment places religious freedom first among the five freedoms it protects – before speech, before press, before assembly, before petition. These were not accidents of drafting. They were deliberate decisions made by men who had lived under governments that drew exactly these kinds of lines.

What are the consequences of this change in recognized religions?

Thomas Nelson Jr. signed the Declaration of Independence, served as governor of Virginia, and spent his personal fortune financing the Continental Army, dying in poverty because of it. At Yorktown, he ordered cannon fire directed at his own home because British troops had occupied it. He came home from his education in England, having watched the Church of England decide which faiths were legitimate and which were not. He built something specifically designed to prevent that architecture from taking root here. He is my ancestor. He did not give everything he had to build what just happened.

There is a detail that the congressional response has not fully addressed. The Secretary of Defense's own church is among the evangelical traditions that theologically reject the LDS Church's claim to Christianity. That makes the omission difficult to dismiss as bureaucratic oversight. But even if the intent were purely administrative, the result is the same: a government document now tells military chaplains which faiths count as Christian. That is a religious test. The Constitution forbids it regardless of intent.

What impact does the change have on Arizona LDS military members and veterans?

It is worth noting that before this controversy erupted, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had already called its global membership to a worldwide fast on July 5 to pray for the strengthening of religious liberty worldwide. That call was not reactive. Religious freedom is not a Latter-day Saint issue or a Christian issue. It is a human issue.

This should concern every Arizonan regardless of faith. A government empowered to draw this line for one tradition has established the machinery to draw it for any tradition. The question is not whether your faith made the Christian list this time. The question is whether you want the government to make that list at all.

The Constitution does not say some flesh. It does not say Christian flesh. It says no religious test. It means what it says.