President Donald Trump's Pentagon has introduced new religious rules for U.S. service members that it says are meant to promote "spiritual readiness," but the changes are being met with "outrage and pushback" and are leaving troops "scrambling" to comply under a new deadline, according to a report published Wednesday morning by MS NOW.

The report detailed internal fallout across the U.S. military from changes recently implemented by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Sources who spoke to the outlet accused the secretary of working to more overtly push Christianity onto members of the armed forces, "drastically" curtailing religious choice in the process.

"Pete Hegseth's crusade to infuse the U.S. military with Christianity is provoking outrage and pushback," the report stated. "The secretary of defense says he is creating a new Pentagon office to 'elevate spiritual readiness' throughout the armed forces. But not everyone feels included at a time when religious choice in the military is dwindling under Hegseth's personal brand of Christian nationalism. Personnel are scrambling on deadline to fulfill a requirement to choose their religion from a new, drastically reduced menu of options."

The new office, dubbed the "Office of Religious Affairs," was introduced around the same time the Pentagon cut the number of officially recognized religious affiliations by 85 percent. A May memo obtained by MS NOW showed the Department of Defense "dropping 180 faiths from the military's recognized religions list, reducing the number from 211 to 31." Only nine of the remaining faith options are not Christian in some form, and troops have until Friday to make their selection through a new form. Once submitted, those selections will record personnel under one of the 31 remaining options, putting the reduced list into immediate effect across the force.

Defense officials have defended the changes as a way to strengthen religious support. "Our commitment to the spiritual readiness and religious freedom of every Airman and Guardian remains steadfast," Richard Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, said in a Sept. 25 statement to members of the Air Force Space Force. He added that the new designation list would ensure the chaplain corps has the "accurate demographic data they need to provide tailored resources and support to our Service members, while continuing to respect their individual convictions." Under that rationale, the designations serve as the demographic data on which tailored religious support depends, making the composition of the 31-faith list the focal point of both the Pentagon's defense of the policy and the objections to it.

But at least six current and former members of the military, including chaplains, who were interviewed by MS NOW rejected that explanation.

"The push is to a Christian identity," one anonymous former military chaplain — who now helps vet future chaplains and describes themselves as a devout Christian — told the outlet. "This nation was not founded as a Christian nation, [but Hegseth] wants to see society go toward a national Christian identity."

"I think that's a flagrant violation of law and policy," a civilian who has worked at the Pentagon for a decade told MS NOW. "It creates the 'if you're not with me, you're against me' kind of thing... Christian nationalism is in, and everybody else is out, and it is palpable in that building."