Pentagon Cuts Religious Affiliation Codes, Dropping Pagan, Wiccan, Druid, and Asatru Designations Among Others Manny Moreno By Manny Moreno | June 4, 2026
WASHINGTON — The Wild Hunt has received multiple reports from anonymous sources indicating that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has dramatically reduced the number of recognized religious affiliation codes used by service members. Various other news sources have now confirmed the change. The revision cuts the list from more than 200 faith and belief categories to just 31.
The revision removes approximately 180 minority religious, spiritual, and secular worldview designations. Faiths and belief systems reportedly excluded from the revised list include Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick practitioners, New Age churches, Pagans, Rosicrucians, Shamans, Spiritualists, members of The Troth, Unitarian Universalists, and various Wiccan traditions.
The streamlined list retains a smaller number of broadly defined categories, including Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and major Christian denominations such as Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists.
According to a memorandum signed by Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata, the revision was directed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in order to “streamline the DoD collection of religious preferences for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.” The memorandum instructed the department to revise the existing faith and belief coding system within 60 days.
“The new list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of service members and to provide religious support activities that align with service members’ personal faith and practices,” Tata wrote.
Tata also noted that service members will not be limited to the revised religious affiliation codes when selecting information for military identification tags.
The move follows a broader effort by Hegseth to reshape the military chaplaincy. In September 2025, Hegseth made remarks singling out “Nordic Pagans.” In December 2025, he announced plans “to make the Chaplain Corps great again,” describing a top-down cultural shift that would place spiritual well-being on the same level as physical and mental health.
In March 2026, Hegseth outlined additional chaplaincy reforms, including plans to reduce the number of religious affiliation codes and to replace rank insignia worn by military chaplains on work uniforms with religious insignia. At the time, he argued that the existing system had become unwieldy.
“The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes,” Hegseth said. “It was impractical and unusable, and many codes were never used at all.” He added that approximately 82% of religiously affiliated service members used only six of the available codes.
Religious affiliation codes are used by the military to identify service members’ faith preferences and assist chaplaincies in planning religious support across the armed forces. The new policy represents a significant departure from a 2017 expansion of faith and belief codes implemented during President Donald Trump’s first administration.
At that time, the Armed Forces Chaplains Board endorsed broadening the list to better identify the religious preferences of military personnel. The expansion was intended to improve demographic tracking, strengthen planning for religious support, and provide a more accurate assessment of chaplaincy requirements across the services.
The Wild Hunt has requested clarification from the Department of Defense regarding the criteria used to determine which faiths and worldviews were removed from the revised list and what impact the changes may have on affected service members. As of publication, the department has not responded.
This is a developing story and will be updated as additional information becomes available.
None of their damn business anyway. And we know Trump is beholden to Jews and Evangelicals (and maybe Catholics).. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
Why should any group of individuals be lumped into a group who have little, if anything in common
Posted by Sia on June 7, 2026, 11:39 am, in reply to "I'd just use 'Other'" ADMIN
with one another and all labeled "other" as if they don't matter?
I get requiring at least a minimum of adherents to be a separate group, but they currently exist, so WHY take recognition away when it's MORE work to remove them than to leave them in place? Ibdividuals choose their affiliation, no one else has to find it in a long list for them. The military is not required to have clergy for every group. Chaplains are trained to be able to give spiritual guidance generically whenever necessary.
Let "other" be for those with fewer than 1,000 known adherents and leave the process alone as is.
Of course I wouldn't join it. Had I been drafted in the Vietnam era I'd already resolved not to go. I didn't want to register even after the draft was over, but my parents talked me into it.
This country hasn't really fought a justifiable war since WWII. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
Ostensibly because of the need for "last rites" for dying soldiers...
but also because having faith in 'God and country' and the righteous mission of protecting the country is important for many who are risking or laying down their life to that end.
Not everyone needs to believe in the 'god' part to want to serve and protect their country, but all deserve compassion, kindness and gratitude for doing so, and especially if they ultimately lay down their life in that service.
where trauma and intense feelings & beliefs influence them. People who strongly believe in their respective faith NEED spiritual advisors to be available to them.
Approximately 30% of the population is "Unaffiliated" which includes atheists, agnostics and "nothing in particular."
So there are FAR more "unaffiliateds" or NON-religious than there are Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindu, and "other faiths" combined. Yet these non-religious people should just be counted as "other" or "agnostic" since it would be a sin to think that "atheists" or "others" should even count? There are even FAR more unaffiliateds than there are Catholics... yet Catholics I assume get their own chaplain.
So who provides "spiritual" guidance or assistance for non-religious people in their time of need for just say... compassion? Or do they just not count anymore?
How about a dedicated NON-religious 'chaplain' or 'spiritual advisor' or 'assistant' for that big of a group??
Christianity (62% Total):
Protestantism: 40% (Includes Evangelical, Mainline, and historically Black Protestant churches).
Catholicism: 19%.
Other Christian: 3% (Includes Mormons, Orthodox Christians, and Jehovah's Witnesses).
If they are going to have or train chaplains to deal with multiple faiths or non-faiths, why even have priests, rabbis or whatever? Just train counselors how to deal with multiple faiths or non-faiths. They needn't even be religious to learn how to do that, do they?
Yeah, they do need to address soldiers' personal faith and
as with the transgender declaration. It is all an attempt to weary Americans, get them to stop reading and listening because they are just plain tired of it all.
Of course there are other nefarious reasons but I see it in myself of late. It's like, "oh look he's shouting and rambling again...whatever"
There's only so much energy we can all give to things so disturbing.
Still we have to be aware of the fact that we MUST pay attention and carve out days or just hours where we have "trump-free" time to regroup. We can always regroup later to jump back into the fight.
Those who fail to recognize the NEED for some escape from his sh!t will eventually withdraw and fail to regroup until it's too late. By then, fear will take over because anyone who did speak out will have been silenced and most will be too afraid to say anything.
on June 6, 2026, 6:54 pm
