These are the things we will look back on, when we wonder how it is that we established a state religion.
On May 20, the Pentagon ordered a cut to its list of recognized religions from 211 down to 31.
Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, directed the change, with the accompanying memo cutting roughly 180 faiths from the list of officially recognized religions.
Deists, Atheists, and Unitarian Universalists, for example, are no longer recognized.
Some who signed the Declaration of Independence were Deists, and many today will know the high visibility Unitarian Universalist congregations have in the lives of communities.
A soldier whose faith is not listed now becomes “other” on the rolls. The Defense Department’s chaplaincy plans its support around the faiths that stay, with others making do.
The list of recognized religions grew to 211 in 2017, under Trump’s first administration but last month’s purge took it down to 31.
The major Christian denominations stay on the list: Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists; as do major world religions: Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs.
Hegseth is known for holding Christian prayer services in the Pentagon auditorium and famously posted Scripture and pseudo scripture alongside his messaging on the war in Iran.
These are the things we will look back on, when we wonder how it is that we established a state religion.
Notes To My Future Self 