Secretary Hegseth Announces Changes to Military Chaplain Codes

Date announced: December 17th, 2025 with changes instituted June 05 2026.

Executive Order: Secretary Hegseth Directs Changes to the Military Chaplain Corps

Key Provisions:

• Secretary Hegseth announced on social media on social media his intention to overhaul the military Chaplain Corps, claiming that there would be a “top-down cultural shift.” 
• The codes that military chaplains use to track the religious beliefs of military servicemembers will now be called “religious affiliation codes” and will be reduced from over 200 to 31. The list includes 21 different Christian denominations but removes the ability for servicemembers to list themselves as a myriad of different beliefs, including as an Atheist, Humanist, Pagan, Wiccan, Deist, and others.  
• Military chaplains will be directed to remove their military rank from their uniforms, instead wearing only their religious insignias. 

Threats to Religious Freedom:

• The military’s system of tracking religious affiliation ensures that service members can receive religious accommodations that align with their beliefs. Removing the ability for servicemembers to properly identifythemselves, it marginalizes those of smaller faith traditions, or those who practice none at all. 
• The changes reduce the internal data that can be used to differentiate between faith traditions, lumping such traditions into an “other” category. Further, the military uses those codes in order to make changes to policy, decide where to allocate resources, and to provide chaplains with accurate information. 
• At a time in which religious pluralism is flourishing in the United States, this is another avenue in which Secretary Hegseth wishes to force his Christian nationalist views on our military servicemembers.