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“The new list includes 31 recognized faiths, most of them Christian denominations.” - RNS

Discussion

Fri, 06/05/26

Really what you have is 10. The reason why most of them are Christian is only because they broke those down. They could have done the same for the other ones like Islam.

Fri, 06/05/26

Was just thinking that, beyond the apparent fact that Hegseth's announcement went over (rightly) like a lead balloon, maybe it would be enlightening to contemplate what categories would exist. I guess you could have...

  1. Christian
  2. Jewish
  3. Muslim
  4. Atheistic/Agnostic
  5. Hindu
  6. Buddhist
  7. Taoist
  8. Satanist
  9. European pre-Christian
  10. African pre-Christian
  11. Asian pre-Christian
  12. North American Indigenous pre-Christian
  13. Central American Indigenous
  14. South American Indigenous...

But then with some of the "interesting" new religions, you'd have the question of what categories they'd fit into. And on the light side, we could say:

  1. Fundamental Baptists
  2. Satanists

j/k

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Sun, 06/07/26

Maybe they just need a massive ‘Other’ category. But I suppose part of the purpose of the list is to draw some lines and be able to say of some things, “No, that’s not a religion and doesn’t get to be treated like one.”

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.