Restore Excluded Faith Traditions to DoD's Recognized Religion List

The Department of Defense needs to restore the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and every other faith tradition stripped from its recognized religion list. The May 20 memo from Undersecretary Anthony J. Tata slashed recognized religious labels from 211 down to 30, and the June 8 revision did nothing to fix that. These are real denominations with real service members who now can't request religious holidays, access sacred texts, or find a chaplain suited to their tradition. The DoD claims this list isn't about "officially approved" religions — but that's exactly how it functions in practice. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ are historic Protestant denominations. Unitarian Universalists have served in uniform for generations. Cutting them while keeping 20 other Christian denominations isn't streamlining — it's picking winners among faiths. Rep. Jamie Raskin called this unconstitutional, and he's right. The First Amendment doesn't allow the federal government to decide which religious identities count. Please push the DoD to reverse these exclusions and restore a comprehensive list that reflects the actual diversity of the people who serve.