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.

“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.

Jenna Carson is a Latter-day Saint who served as an active-duty chaplain for the Air Force from 2022 to ’25.

During her tenure, she said she never received pushback from the institution or her superiors as to her Christianity, although there was some question about whether she could lead Protestant services.

She told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday the implications of the coding change were unclear to her and those she knew still serving as chaplains.

“We’re all confused about it,” she said, noting wariness among those she’d spoken to about it as to whether the change represented a step toward curtailing religious accommodation regardless of individual service members’ beliefs.