I served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Chaplain Corps as a chaplain candidate during Donald Trump’s first term as president. I was endorsed through the Disciples of Christ denomination and under their faith code, “GE.” That faith code is now gone.
On May 20, an undersecretary for the Department of Defense signed a memo announcing the number of faith codes recognized by the department would be cut from more than 200 to 31. These faith codes mean something. Not only do they allow for religious accommodations such as diet and appearance, but the code tells a commander who to call when someone is dying, guidance on holy days, burial and which chaplain gets matched to the soldier for spiritual care.
Leigh Larson
As a chaplain candidate, I understood the faith listed on a dog tag to be the last bit of human freedom a soldier can enjoy in the military. While they are still free to list whatever faith on the dog tag, the bureaucratic paperwork used for advocating for accommodations now will be much narrower.
The list groups Christian denominations and their various offshoots under a singular label; if this was a seat at a table, one person now represents all of what it means to be “Catholic,” “Methodist” or “Lutheran,” regardless if the denomination splits into a spectrum of ideological nuances.
The Southern Baptist Convention and the Progressive National Baptist Convention now all fall under “Baptist,” along with the other nearly 30 Baptist-related bodies from the list prior to trimming. Essentially, the federal government just decided Baptist or other denominational distinctions don’t matter.
The original May 20 memo listed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (CJ), but not as Christian. Utah Sen. Mike Lee objected on June 7, asking the Pentagon to “not just reconsider it but undo it.” He urged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “Tear down that wall. This is not cool. Get rid of it — get rid of it now.”
The next day, the Pentagon revised the list and added Latter-day Saints back as “Christian.” The state is serving as a theologian and magistrate, defining who is and who is not Christian.
Baptists should buck at this notion. Roger Williams argued civil officers are not “judges, governors or defenders of the Spiritual, or Christian, State and worship.”
Back in July, BNG published Bill Leonard’s “First They Came for the Mormons” in which he argued the government shouldn’t define a group’s religious identity. Baptists once were the unrecognized minority in America, forming their own haven of dissenters in Rhode Island, with the first Baptist church in America coming shortly after. Williams argued that the state had no business sorting true faiths from false ones, and in The Bloudy Tenent (1644) urged that “a permission of the most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or Antichristian consciences and worships, be granted to all men in all Nations.”
“This is about soul freedom and soul competency.”
This is about soul freedom and soul competency. Every individual has the competency of soul and the freedom to develop their own conscience. Williams and John Leland defended religious freedoms for various Christians, Jews, dissenters and nonbelievers, not just their own Baptist communities.
Hegseth recently invoked putting on “the full armor of God” and quoted Psalms in a Quantico speech. This is dangerous rhetoric. As Leland wrote, “The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever.”
Yes, first they came for the Mormons, but they came for nearly 30 of your Baptist faith codes when they cut them in May, too.
One can make the claim that this is administrative consolidation, or it’s not that big a deal bureaucratically. But they folded my code (Christian – Other), and yours (Christian – Baptist). Non-Christians, including Wiccan, Unitarian Universalist and Humanist are folded into “Other Religions,” and atheists are now no religion.
It is concerning that a government that can erase recognition by memo can illegitimize anyone’s. My own code is evidence.
To ensure that the commonwealth protects everyone’s conscience, not about which theology defines it, it will require congressional oversight of the office through the National Defense Authorization Act, regular and accurate auditing of the chaplaincy and force’s beliefs, and institutional policies that reflect the needs of the force.
All Baptist endorsing bodies are encouraged to join the coalition behind the June 5 letter from Disciples, Episcopal, PC(USA), UCC, UUA and several Baptist organizations calling for restored codes and published criteria that ensure religious protections and freedoms for all who serve.
Protecting religious liberties from religious tyranny and state theological abstraction is about as American, and as Baptist, as it gets.
Leigh Larson served as a chaplain candidate in the USAFR Chaplain Corps. She wrote her master’s thesis on Christian nationalism in U.S. military chaplaincy and received a master of theological studies degree from Phillips Theological Seminary. Follow her @followtheleighder.