Are Mormons Christians? The Department of Defense didn't think so — and it sparked major backlash

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were up in arms last week after the Department of Defense (DOD) — under the leadership of Secretary Pete Hegseth — left them off its newly slimmed down list of Christian religions.

The omission spawned a massive backlash that the Department of Defense quickly responded to by revising its list — but the revision fell short of designating Latter-day Saints as Christian.

It all points to a long divide between some Christians and members of the LDS church and some very distinct beliefs about Jesus Christ. Tamarra Kemsley, religion reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, says it also says a lot about the political power of both evangelical Christians and Latter-day Saints today.

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER Let's begin, Tamarra, with a little bit about the reaction to this. Like, this seemed to really touch a nerve in Utah, in the broader kind of LDS world. Talk a little bit about what motivated this reaction. Like, this is a long point of disagreement, let's say, between some evangelical Christians and the LDS Church, right?

TAMARRA KEMSLEY: Since Day 1. Since Day 1, Joseph Smith came out and said, "Hey look, I've got another book of scripture about Jesus Christ." This has been very upsetting to other Christian faiths, especially the evangelical world as it's developed. And it is really kind of frustrating for a lot of Latter-day Saints who see themselves as otherwise bedfellows with evangelicals. "Hey look," you know, especially since the rise of the religious right, "We have all these shared political goals, we have all these shared ideas about patriotism, what it means to be an American. Like, can't we all get along? Won't you let me into your club?" And this sense of like, "Well, we like it when you vote our way, but no."

LAUREN GILGER Right. And this is sort of a theological debate, right? Like, talk a little bit about the the kind of differences in the belief system that especially some conservative evangelical Christians really take issue with.

TAMARRA KEMSLEY: Yes, absolutely. So, as I mentioned, the existence of the Book of Mormon is very concerning to many. The other is, of course, this belief that God was once a man, and that men and women will one day be gods and goddesses. That is very offensive to people who are conservative Christians. That has been very difficult.

Everything that goes on in the temples is really uncomfortable for a lot of these — a lot of people, but a lot of Christian evangelicals who see it as sort of like, "culty" is the word that you will often hear, "it's strange, it's weird." I mean, of course, a lot of things that — you could argue that a lot of things that religions do are "strange and weird," according to modern Protestant sort of norms that have become the water that a lot of Americans just swim in without noticing today, but yeah, it's kind of like, ooh, what's that? Cringe.

LAUREN GILGER It's different, yeah. I mean, lots of folks will point out there are no crosses in Mormon temples, right? They focus on the resurrection and not the the death of Christ. But you mention in your reporting that the LDS Church has been engaged in this kind of nearly decade-long campaign to rebrand. You know, it's tied up in this idea that Latter-day Saints are Christians, and they want folks to think of them that way. What has that campaign looked like?

TAMARRA KEMSLEY: So, this was definitely the work of the late President Russell M. Nelson who just died last year at the age of, oh, I think it was 100 or 101. ... And he was to the end very insistent and very active on this front that, "No, no, no, we're not Mormons." And that's was a huge pivot from his some of his predecessors who had dumped a ton of money into this.

I don't know if any of your listeners ever remember the "I'm a Mormon" campaign. There were lots of YouTube ads. If you went to Times Square, you saw these where it was people who were fun and quirky and interesting, being like, "I'm a Mormon." All of that was gone. All of that was gone. The logo became this image of Jesus, there was all of like, the Temple Square in Salt Lake City, which is the sort of Vatican for the LDS Church, just got revamped, and like, gone are references to Joseph Smith and the restoration for the most part, instead it's just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, all day long, all the time.

And so, yes, this has been, I mean, they bought the URL churchofjesuschrist.org, they changed all of their social media handles. So in every way that the institution kind of has its fingers in defining officially what it stands for, it found a way to insert Jesus.

LAUREN GILGER: That's very interesting. So, we also saw this move from the DOD, like it reverberated throughout the LDS, you know, communities near and far. But we also saw it hit the political realm, right, like with Utah Senator Mike Lee in particular, but many other LDS politicians you know, getting getting really upset here, speaking out. For him in particular, I think it was it was notable because it was kind of a rare instance of him being willing to push back against the Trump administration.

TAMARRA KEMSLEY: Lee even had a video where he was — this impassioned plea where he was talking to his camera and he's like, "Pete Hegseth, tear down this wall!" Right? Trying to mimic Ronald Reagan, and I guess, in this case, Hegseth is Gorbachev.

But it was this very, very ... he took it very personally. I think exactly for that reason that he saw himself as part of this Christian evangelical right that has found so many avenues of power in this administration. And to suddenly find himself on the out, I think that felt like a deep betrayal.

But I will note that he did not say, "Trump, tear down this wall." His criticism was overwhelmingly focused on Hegseth, who is himself very, has a very clear Christian ideology. In contrast to Trump, who has been like, somewhat Presbyterian, sort of like, is definitely, you know, doesn't go to church as much as Hegseth, let's put it that way. ... And then, when this list changed — and to be clear, the list did not add Christian to, it instead of caving to LDS demands and adding the word Christian, they pulled the tag altogether.

So no faiths were given this Christian delineation, right? Nonetheless, Lee calls this a victory. And in doing so, once again, cements himself as a supporter of Trump, saying, "This was Trump. Trump did this. Trump did this." He says, "I called up Trump, Trump loves Latter-day Saints, and he listened, and I'm so grateful, don't we love Trump?" And so he found this way to sort of even like, cut Hegseth out, and declare himself the winner of this.

LAUREN GILGER: It's an interesting political moment too, Tamarra, because, I mean, the relationship that LDS voters have had with Trump in particular over the last decade or so he's been in politics has been a little fraught. Like, I think most LDS voters are probably Trump voters today, so it's an interesting move from the DOD to sort of alienate them in this way. But they're certainly not all for Trump.

TAMARRA KEMSLEY: It's been about a 60% split among Latter-day Saints for Trump, which is down from about 80% or 86% or 87% for previous GOP presidential nominees. So, definitely a majority, but not the outsized numbers that we saw previously.

And so, of course, it makes political sense for Trump to try and stem those losses, especially at a time where he is down overall in the polls. Now, I think for him, this just wasn't a big deal. Trump has not — has certainly seen opportunities to make inroads into the Christian community, the conservative Christian community, and to build up and sort of triumph, you know, play off of their cultural grievances.

However, it really seems like Hegseth is got more of a clear ideology. He attends this religious organization, this church that is run by this pastor, Doug Wilson, and they are, you know, arch-conservatives. And it's very different from even your mainstream evangelical church, which they would see as too liberal. So I think what you have here are different priorities about whether to make sort of theological stands or political savvy moves.

LAUREN GILGER Hmm, very interesting stuff. All right, we'll leave it there. Tamarra Kemsley, religion reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, joining us to talk about this controversy. Tamarra, thank you very much for coming back on The Show, I appreciate it.

TAMARRA KEMSLEY: Yeah, always fun.