06/11/2026
The recent dust up over the Pentagon failing to list the LDS Church as "Christian" reveals how sensitive many Mormons are on this topic. The reason for the perceived slight is actually (most likely) due to the very long, official name of the Mormon faith. A staffer whose job it was to create the new list of religions, benefitted the LDS by not placing them under the "Other" category but gave them full recognition. The staffer may have thought that since "Jesus Christ" is clearly in the name, it would not be necessary to have the term "Christian" in front of the listing. Again, the name (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is VERY long, in comparison to all of the short-named religions listed like "evangelical" or "JW" or "Baptist" etc. Perhaps the staffer also knew that the LDS Church (for about ten years) has been insisting that society use their full, official name. He could have listed it as "Christian -- Mormon Church" or "Christian --LDS Church." Instead, the preferred long full name was squeezed into the listed. How wrong this staffer was to think that he had made everyone happy! Now the Pentagon has removed the term "Christian" from every entry, and now only the religions left off the list are still fuming (ie. Unitarian-Universalist, Heathen, Pagan and three different types of Wicca). Question: Have you ever met a Unitarian that was serving in the US military? Didn't think so! --Steve