For nearly a decade, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been engaged in a top-down rebrand meant partly to solidify its focus and bona fides as a Christian religion.
The U.S. Department of Defense, led by conservative evangelical Pete Hegseth, appears unconvinced.
On Friday, spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed on social media a report that the department had trimmed its list of recognized religious affiliations, used by its chaplains, from more than 200 to 31.
The Latter-day Saint faith was among those to make the cut. But there was a catch.
The list denotes 20 faiths as Christian, including Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Baptist and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Not, however, the Utah-based faith.
Asked by The Salt Lake Tribune if this omission was intentional, a member of the department’s press team pointed to the statement posted by Parnell.
The Office of the Secretary of War is announcing a significant change to the Department’s categorization of religious affiliation. In a long overdue move, we reduced the list from over 200 unmanageable categories to 31. With this move, we are returning to the original intent of… https://t.co/dgHX5ytzjJ pic.twitter.com/eho537O08J — Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) June 5, 2026
“This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of ‘officially approved’ religions,” he wrote. “Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups.”
However, an accompanying video by Hegseth seemed to suggest the change wasn’t entirely one of streamlining bureaucracy.
“In previous administrations, our Chaplain Corps was infected by political correctness and secular humanism,” he said. “…Faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care. We started correcting that drift [in December], and today we’re going further.”
Asked if the church planned to respond, a spokesperson for the faith pointed to the FAQ portion of its website. It reads: “Latter-day Saints believe God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to save all mankind from death and their individual sins. Jesus Christ is central to the lives of church members.”
Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis, both members of the church, took to social media Saturday to condemn the seeming snub, with Curtis stating he is “working now to ensure a correction is made.”
Among those eliminated were Unitarian Universalists, various Wiccans, deists, atheists and others, according to Military.com, the first to report the news.
Thelema has always been super fascinating to me. I’d love to learn more if you have resources to direct me towards. There’s actually a Lemmy server specifically for religions. I started one over there for Episcopalians, but it’s been so long I’ll have to dig up the info on it as I don’t remember the sever name. Philosophy and religions subs are the thing I miss most from the other site
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
I think I’ll start a Thelema community when I’m back home at my computer, and I’ll send you the info when I do. Thanks for your interest—it has reignited my desire to have a place on Lemmy for people to learn about the Law.
Here are resources for you:
https://sacred-texts.com/oto/index.htm This is an online collection of our sacred texts. The ones marked class A are considered to be channeled from supra-human contact as the result of magickal operations. Our primary text is Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law) which is document CCXX in this list.
https://m.youtube.com/@Arcanumluminarium/videos?ra=m
Our primary fraternal organization is the Ordo Templi Orientis. Lon Milo DuQuette is the archbishop of the OTO, and he does daily videos that are easily digestible for a new person who is interested in Thelema. This link is a collection of those videos, and new ones come out almost every single day.
https://m.youtube.com/@TempleoftheSilverStar?ra=m
The Temple of the Silver Star is an academic and initiatory organization that both teaches and performs the rituals of Thelema. They have instructional videos, as well as books on how to live your day to day life as a modern Thelemite. Their founder, David Shoemaker, can be reached via Instagram or email for questions and initiatory possibilities.
Further suggested reading would be Perdurabo by Richard Kaczynski, which is a scholarly biography of the life and teachings of Aleister Crowley. Also, I would recommend Living Thelema by David Shoemaker for a handbook about living life as a Thelemite in the new millennium. Another good one is Adventures of a Magus, which is a textbook style guide to performing our rituals with included diagrams and pictures—it is great for visualizing what this stuff actually looks like. Lastly, I’d recommend In The Center of the Fire by James Wasserman for a history of the modern OTO as it was reformed in the mid 70’s.
I would like to add that the best way to find out if Thelema is bullshit or not is simply to try it out. There is no commitment required to do our rituals (do what thou wilt, after all). I became a Thelemite because I tried it and it worked. It defies logic sometimes, but it has transformed me as a person exactly as advertised. Maybe it’s my brain chemistry that is wired for this and other people aren’t, maybe I’m delusional, or maybe magick is real on some fundamental level—I choose not to look a gift horse in the mouth. The practices of Thelema have made me a more confident, open minded, brave, and compassionate person, plus my love life got way more exciting and I met a bunch of cool friends. To me, that is delivery of the only promise we make: that you will Know Yourself through these practices.
I have been (and currently am) a member of multiple initiatory organizations, and I have never been asked to do anything that violates my morals or that I believe is harmful to anyone. I have been tested and pushed to find my limits, but it has all been consensual and joyous, even after all these years. Results may vary, but I feel safe in recommending the path to anyone since my experience and the experience of my friends has been largely positive.
Lastly, if you would like to meet some real life Thelemites, the best way to do so is to visit an OTO lodge. They are in most states in the US, as well as many countries around the world. Their primary public ritual, the Gnostic Mass, can be attended by anyone who shoots them an email and expresses interest.
https://a.co/d/0gYBMq61
All rituals have been published in books and are only secret as a matter of personal honor, so if you have anxiety about any part of the system, you can pick up a copy of The Secret Rituals of the OTO and read up on exactly what will happen in each grade. That said, there is a true beauty in going in blind—it will give you a raw version of the experience that I believe makes initiation more impactful. That decision is very personal though so…do what thou wilt.
Love is the law, love under will.