What Religious Preference Codes would be Helpful?

In a previous post I described the problem with existing religious preference codes and affirmed the idea of reorganizing and streamlining the list. I also criticized the revised list published by the Pentagon. 

Some of the new labels are specific denominations, some are groupings of denominations with similar names, and some are theological orientations. For many, the labels will continue to overlap. 

Most importantly, the religious requirements of people in each group vary widely. Southern Baptists and American Baptists (USA) and and National Baptists are all Baptists, but they will not necessarily practice their faith in the same way. The previous list contained 29 Baptist labels, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod are both Lutherans, but the latter church's rules make it impossible for them to commune together. The Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches and the Coalition of Spirit Filled Churches are both Pentecostal, but couldn't further apart in social issues. 

It doesn't look like anyone who knew anything about the actual religious needs of service members put this list together. Was it the product of AI. As published, the list doesn't give commanders much useful information.

So what kinds of information would be helpful in 2026? And I should note that I am speaking here specifically about religious requirements for self-identified Christians. I am not in a position to speak about Jewish, Muslim, or other faith groups 

  • Who is Catholic? Orthodox? LDS? 
  • Who needs communion every week and from whom can you receive it?
  • Who calls communion a sacrament, and who calls it an ordnance or memorial?
  • Who practices infant baptism and who practices believer baptism?
  • Who confesses the ecumenical creeds?  Who is non-trinitarian?
  • Who is not going to walk out if a woman is preaching? Or a gay person?
  • Who needs a religious community that supports same-sex marriage?
  • Who is looking for worship in a certain cultural tradition? 
  • Who is attached to a specific stream of historic Protestantism and what is it? 
  • Who wants their non-denominational service to feel more formal? More contemporary?

Having criticized both the old list, I am not certain how you create a standardized form that gets this information, that presents options that most soldiers will understand, and that is not likely to be taken as offensive or invasive. At the battalion level, matters will always boil down to chaplains getting to know their soldiers and doing their best to accommodate them. 

At higher echelons, even having good data won't guarantee that every soldier will receive the religious support they need. There is never going to be a perfect match between religious requirements and available religious support resources. 

In addition to Catholic services, most military installations are going to continue to offer one or more non-denominational services, often known as General Protestant or Collective Protestant. If there are enough chaplains, there may be a "traditional" non-liturgical service and a "gospel" service (which is just a different tradition), maybe some form of "contemporary" service, and very maybe an "inclusive" service. They will be led by whatever chaplains are appropriate and available. 

On-post services for smaller faith groups with specific requirements will depend on the availability of an appropriate chaplain to lead them, or on the availability of a qualified faith group leader, sufficient interest among the military community, and the lack of available services off-post. 

In deployed situations, the senior theater chaplain is going to arrange for Catholic chaplains in theater to move around the area of operations to provide Catholic services. If there are no Jewish or Muslim chaplains among the deployed units, the senior chaplain will arrange for Jewish and Muslim chaplains from outside the theater to be temporarily deployed at key times during the religious calendar. In the case of low density faith groups, having a by-name list can help those chaplains get to the right place to visit their soldiers. 

 

Popular posts from this blog

If My People

Performative civil religion was on full display this week during the America Reads the Bible series of public Bible readings. The performance is supposed to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence. During the event, a series of politicians, MAGA supporters, and other ostensibly notable figures will read aloud the entire Protestant Bible in piecemeal fashion. The readers are using the King James Easy Read Bible, one of many obscure revisions of the KJV. The live readings take place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Tickets are $50. You can also register to watch a live stream. I cannot understood why anyone thinks merely reading the words of the Bible aloud will mean anything to God, have a positive effect on the nation, or draw anyone to Jesus. On Tuesday, President Trump read from Second Chronicle. The organizer's website features a recording of the president's reading on the home page of it's website and declares, As...
Read more

The Problem with Religious Affiliation Codes

Religious preference codes only exist to give commanders and chaplains a big, one-over-the-world view of the religious needs of the unit as a whole. They reside in the big Army database of personnel records as useful data points for generalized planning. They are not terribly useful for individual religious support where people don't always fit their labels. There, chaplains need to get to know their soldiers personally.  Soldiers entering the Army are overwhelmed by an avalanche of administrative requirements. It’s a normal human response to proceed through that process without much thought.  I found that Soldiers had often chosen their religious preference codes hastily, and the religion coded in the personnel database did not accurately reflect their religious identities.  The previous list of religious codes was long (5 single spaced pages) and not logically organized. It was a jumble of institutional identities and religious categories, most of which were going to be...
Read more

Is the President Saving Religion?

The president spoke to the National Prayer Breakfast on February 6, 2026. The event is sponsored by a Christian organization, but its official website says that it is open to people of all faiths. It is supposed to bring national leaders of faith together regardless of political affiliation.  As a Christian pastor, I would like to respectfully offer some reflections on the president’s 77 minute speech. This essay is long because the speech was long. What’s In the Speech What was the tone of the speech? Uplifting? Inspiring? Unifying? Spiritual? I would characterize it as political. It’s tone matched the tone of all his speeches, if you know what I mean. Most of it echoed themes and talking points common to every speech he makes. Little of it had any bearing on on the purpose of the assembly, and I can’t begin to address those parts of the speech. Simply put, I found much of it objectionable.  But what about the rest, the parts that talked about religion? In over 12...
Read more