WASHINGTON, June 7, 2026 — Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, joined a growing bipartisan front of lawmakers Saturday demanding the Pentagon immediately reverse its decision to list The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints separately from other Christian denominations in the military’s newly streamlined religious affiliation code system, calling the move “confounding and unacceptable.”
“The move by the Pentagon to leave The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints off its list of Christian religions is confounding and unacceptable,” Crapo wrote on X. “I join with my colleagues and fellow Idahoans calling on the Pentagon to make an immediate correction.”
Crapo, a lifelong member of the LDS Church who has represented Idaho in the Senate since 1999, is one of the Senate’s most senior Republican members and sits on the Senate Finance Committee. His statement framed the issue in terms of both religious principle and patriotic service. “Regardless of one’s own religious philosophy, you will find Latter-day Saints, whose foundational beliefs are centered on Jesus Christ, among the most patriotic individuals in our country, serving not only in the military, but throughout various government departments and around the world,” he wrote.
The Growing Congressional Front
Crapo’s demand brings the number of publicly vocal congressional critics of the Pentagon’s LDS classification to at least four. Utah Sen. Mike Lee asked publicly why the church had been “left out of the list of Christian churches.” Utah Sen. John Curtis called the classification “unacceptable” and said he was actively working to force a correction. Utah Rep. Mike Kennedy posted twice — on Friday and Saturday — calling the decision “wrong” and declaring “we stand with Christ, we are Christians.” Crapo’s statement extends the pressure beyond Utah’s delegation into Idaho, where the LDS Church also has a significant presence.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a particularly deep footprint in both Utah and Idaho — the two states that make up the heart of the American Mountain West’s LDS population. Boise, Idaho Falls, and Pocatello are among the major Idaho cities with large LDS communities, and the church operates the Brigham Young University-Idaho campus in Rexburg. Idaho has historically produced large numbers of LDS missionaries and military service members.
What the Pentagon Did
The controversy stems from a May 20, 2026 memorandum signed by Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata, reducing the military’s religious affiliation tracking codes from more than 200 to 31. Under the new system, most major Christian denominations — including Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Pentecostals — are grouped under a “Christian —” prefix. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was assigned its own standalone code, CJ, without that prefix, according to the list obtained by Military.com.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell defended the change as purely administrative, saying it was “not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief” and was intended only to help military chaplains assess unit composition and allocate spiritual care resources. No correction has been publicly announced as of publication.
The Church’s Position
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints explicitly identifies itself as a Christian faith. Its official website states the church is “a Christian church but is neither Catholic nor Protestant,” describing itself as a restoration of the church Jesus Christ established in the New Testament era. Approximately 18,200 active-duty service members identify as Latter-day Saints, representing roughly 1.3 percent of the nation’s 1.4 million active-duty personnel, according to Pentagon data.
Crapo’s call for an “immediate correction” — notably more urgent in its phrasing than the other senators’ statements — reflects a sense among LDS lawmakers that the longer the designation remains uncorrected, the more it risks being read as a deliberate theological position rather than an administrative oversight. The Department of War has not responded publicly to the mounting congressional pressure.