The institution

Are Latter-day Saints Christians?

In June 2026 a Pentagon religion list left the Church out of its “Christian” group, and a pastor whose writings Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon says he appreciates said he does not see Latter-day Saints as Christian. What the fight is really about, and what the Church’s own founding account says about the creeds.

The argument

Latter-day Saints pray in the name of Jesus Christ, take the sacrament in remembrance of him, and put his name in the name of their church. If “Christian” means someone who worships Jesus as Savior, they are Christians. This page starts there.

The dispute is not really about whether Latter-day Saints love Jesus. It is about what the word “Christian” means. And the Church’s own founding account takes a position on the creeds that most other churches use to define it.

1. The Pentagon list

On May 20, 2026, the Pentagon’s under secretary for personnel, Anthony Tata, signed a memo cutting the military’s religious-preference codes from 211 to 31. The codes tell chaplains what faiths service members belong to. When the new list came out on Friday, June 5, about 21 entries were grouped under a “Christian” label (Deseret News, Military Times). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was listed without it.

Utah’s delegation objected within a day. Sen. Mike Lee asked why the Church “was left out of the list of Christian churches.” Rep. Mike Kennedy: “I’m a Latter-day Saint, and I am a Christian” (East Idaho News). On Monday, June 8, the Pentagon reissued the list. It did not move the Church into the Christian group. It removed the “Christian” label from every denomination, and said: “The Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates, but to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks” (AP via WTOP). Church leaders declined to comment that Monday, AP reported.

The Pentagon’s stated reason was that it should not adjudicate theological debates. The practical result was that no denomination carries the label. Wiccans and Unitarian Universalists, whose dedicated codes were cut in the same memo, were not reported restored in the June 8 reissue.

2. Doug Wilson

Doug Wilson is an Idaho pastor and co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Pete Hegseth attends a church in that denomination near Nashville and invited Wilson to preach at a Pentagon prayer service in February 2026. A Pentagon spokesman said Hegseth “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings” (AP). Hegseth’s own pastor at that church is Brooks Potteiger, per AP; Wilson is the denomination’s co-founder.

Wilson said he means Christians who hold that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are “three in one,” not separate beings. That is the definition Wilson, the Catholic Church and most evangelical critics use.

3. Two definitions of one word

The Church itself says which definition it uses. Its official newsroom page: “Though the label ‘Christian’ is often associated with particular creedal claims which the Church does not adopt, Latter-day Saints use it to express their belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ” (Newsroom). The same page says the Father, Son and Holy Ghost “are three distinct personages.” Latter-day Saint scripture goes further: “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also” (D&C 130:22).

4. The Church’s founding story draws a line too

The story every missionary teaches, the First Vision, ends with a verdict on the other churches.

To be fair, the verse condemns creeds and their teachers, not every person who believes them, and the Church’s Newsroom page acknowledges “genuine differences” with “other traditional Christian churches.” The Church’s founding claim is that Christ’s church lost priesthood authority and important teachings, including, in its view, the true nature of God, and needed a restoration. It is understandable that churches that hold the creeds respond that the Church is not one of them.

What is true on the other side

• The word is older than the creeds. Where the line sits is a definitional choice, and each side chooses differently.
• The public is divided. In a December 2012 Pew survey, 53% of Americans said the Mormon religion is a Christian faith, 30% said it is not and 17% had no opinion (Pew). We found no newer Pew figure on this question.
• Wilson’s vision is not law. He said he was “not convinced” a total prohibition on Latter-day Saints voting would be necessary. The Pentagon changed the list within three days.

The same sting from the other side

Members who felt the sting of the Pentagon list may recognize the other side of it. In Joseph Smith-History 1:19, the creeds of the churches Joseph Smith asked about are called “an abomination in his sight,” and members of creedal churches can read that as a judgment on their own faith.

The question “are you Christian?” has no neutral answer, because each side defines the word by its own beliefs. That is worth noticing whenever a church, or a government, claims the right to say who belongs.

The point in one sentence