Last week, the United States Department of Defense issued new religious classifications that affect how military branches collect and classify the religious identities of service members. The new categories, which moved the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) from under the “Christian” classification and into its own, sparked an outcry from many lawmakers, especially LDS members such as Sens.

Daniel Darling is the director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He is the author of several books, including In Defense of Christian Patriotism.

","freeContentEncoded","textContent","published","strategy","curl-ready","locked","deletedAt","isSyncedFromOwnBlog","original","duplicatesCount",0,"duplicateVersion","originalArticleId","errorsCount","appearance","color","backgroundColor","shortSummary","The Pentagon's new religious classifications have stirred controversy, particularly regarding the LDS Church's new categorization.","summary","The U.S. Department of Defense has implemented new religious classifications affecting how service members' religious identities are recorded. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) was moved from the 'Christian' category to its own, leading to significant backlash from lawmakers. This change has prompted debate and concern among various political figures.","bullets",[376,377,378,379],"persons",[375],"places",[374],"words",119,"sentiment",-1,"subject","meta",{"_336":337,"_338":339,"_340":341},"eventId","7deec2e78625ad4b28021be60332fa40ca5547331f66d7ac603e29da33c8c7e4","nostrRootEvent","event",{"_24":271,"_300":324,"_146":97,"_198":325,"_304":305,"_232":326,"_307":327},"authorNPub","markdown","Last week, the United States Department of Defense [issued](https://x.com/SeanParnellASW/status/2062964159222874227?s=20) new religious classifications that affect how military branches collect and classify the religious identities of service members. The new categories, which moved the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) from under the “Christian” classification and into its own, sparked an outcry from many lawmakers, especially LDS members such as [Sens](https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/curtis-lee-blast-department-of-defense-decision-not-to-classify-lds-church-as-christian).\n\nDaniel Darling is the director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He is the author of several books, including _In Defense of Christian Patriotism_.","freeMarkdown","kind1EventId","kind30023EventId","d16801f7c0e3d8d0e37d2e0ae5764d3487f7053ef4adcde1d344bb2a4b7bdb08","kind30023",{"_24":281,"_300":301,"_146":302,"_198":303,"_304":305,"_232":306,"_307":308},"publishedToNostr","htmlContentKind30023","

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This change has prompted debate and concern among various political figures.\n - The Department of Defense introduced new religious classifications for service members.\n - The LDS Church is no longer classified under 'Christian'.\n - The new classification for the LDS Church has caused an outcry from lawmakers.\n - Sens. who are members of the LDS Church are among those protesting the change.\n","created_at",1781419500,[322,323],[37,218],[320,321],[41,225],[319,213],[255,219],[317,318],[150,305,36],"client","Layer3.press","d","published_at","1781419500","r","https://news.layer3.press/articles/c9af2feb-f3ed-45b6-a02f-d6d7aa9b1bfd","359e4ff8aa17dd159d4166a9011ac5e310c5e9c8a6d6190a771cdbf9a3527846dc1c0771c4747457920b22d1b4d66723de38adc24c839e233492db6d46afadd7",[328,329,330,331,332],"Why Most Christians Don’t Consider the LDS Church Christian\nTurn any article into a podcast. 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