The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism

[cbabe]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61282571-the-gospel-of-j-edgar-hoover

The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism

Lerone A. Martin

The shocking untold story of how the FBI partnered with white evangelicals to champion a vision of America as a white Christian nation

On a Sunday morning in 1966, a group of white evangelicals dedicated a stained glass window to J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI director was not an evangelical, but his Christian admirers anointed him as their political champion, believing he would lead America back to God. The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover reveals how Hoover and his FBI teamed up with leading white evangelicals and Catholics to bring about a white Christian America by any means necessary.

Lerone Martin draws on thousands of newly declassified FBI documents and memos to describe how, under Hoover's leadership, FBI agents attended spiritual retreats and worship services, creating an FBI religious culture that fashioned G-men into soldiers and ministers of Christian America. Martin shows how prominent figures such as Billy Graham, Fulton Sheen, and countless other ministers from across the country partnered with the FBI and laundered bureau intel in their sermons while the faithful crowned Hoover the adjudicator of true evangelical faith and allegiance. These partnerships not only solidified the political norms of modern white evangelicalism, they also contributed to the political rise of white Christian nationalism, establishing religion and race as the bedrock of the modern national security state, and setting the terms for today's domestic terrorism debates.

Taking readers from the pulpits and pews of small-town America to the Oval Office, and from the grassroots to denominational boardrooms, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover completely transforms how we understand the FBI, white evangelicalism, and our nation's entangled history of religion and politics.

…

https://www.wnycstudios.org › podcasts › takeaway › segments › hoover-christian-fbi

The FBI's White Christian Nationalist Roots - WNYC Studios

Martin uncovered thousands of internal FBI documents using the Freedom of Information Act, and these documents paint a picture of Hoover's FBI as not just a force of the law, but a force of white Christian nationalism. Martin's new book is "The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism."

(He requested many records through four. And had to go to court to actually get them. Also states if you weren’t a white male straight christian you were seen as an enemy of the state. We weren’t imaging the repression. No wonder ‘they’ are so afraid of us.)

[CurtEastPoint]

1. And they worshiped a drag queen

[Haggard Celine]

2. LoL!

Can you imagine what he must have looked like in drag? Goddamn!

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

3. According to one purported witness..

pretty damn sad.

[Faux pas]

4. Kickin'

for later

[oasis]

5. Slimy maggot.

[kimbutgar]

6. Too bad they didn't know Hoover was gay and had a long time partner

I don’t think Hoover would be so accepting of evangelicals today if he knew they were anti LGBTQ.

[Boomerproud]

7. I don't see how he would be a supporter of LGBTQ

He was extremely deep in the closet. He certainly was panting over JFKs activities , and not because he was concerned about national security.

[Mopar151]

8. Hoover was scared shitless of MLK and John Lennon. nt

[Initech]

9. And now the same people want to destroy the FBI because they raided Trump's house.

Frankenstein's monster has escaped the lab.