Choosing Faith in the Armed Forces

The United States celebrates its 250th birthday, a milestone that reminds many of the founding fathers who valued religion as part of their new nation’s identity. Yet, one of the most important ideas from that era was to keep government and religion separate—a principle firmly protected by the First Amendment.

Today, the Department of Defense has decided to limit official recognition of religious groups within the military to 31 faiths plus a category called “Nontraditional Groups.” This change means that Unitarian Universalism, once one of the country’s most widespread faiths in the 1800s, is now placed among those “Nontraditional Groups.”

Unitarian and Universalist leaders once held key roles in government: presidents like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and John Quincy Adams, as well as Supreme Court figures such as Oliver Wendell Holmes. Other notable contributors from these traditions include Franklin, Paine, and writers like Emerson, Thoreau—and modern authors such as Ray Bradbury. Their ideas helped shape American culture and values.

The question arises: who decides which religions receive official status in the armed forces? Removing a tradition that has long been part of America’s fabric could signal a shift in how faith is viewed by the government.

In Colorado, several Unitarian Universalist churches are spread across towns such as Boulder, Greeley, and Denver. Their presence illustrates that this faith still has an active community in the region.

The decision by the Secretary of Defense to reclassify these groups raises concerns about maintaining a balanced representation of beliefs in a diverse military. It is essential to remember that the founding principle was to allow every citizen freedom of worship without government endorsement.