What do you think?
Rate this book
The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism
The shocking untold story of how the FBI partnered with white evangelicals to champion a vision of America as a white Christian nation.
Lerone Martin draws on thousands of newly declassified FBI documents and memos to describe how, under J. Edgar 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 listeners 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.
Lerone Martin draws on thousands of newly declassified FBI documents and memos to describe how, under J. Edgar 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 listeners 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.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published February 7, 2023
62 people are currently reading
1164 people want to read
About the author
Lerone A. Martin
2 books10 followersLerone A. Martin is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Chair and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
September 19, 2023
Near the beginning of this book the author shares a bit of history that seems strange in light of today's sensibilities. In 1966 a stained glass window at the Capital Hill Methodist Church was dedicated in honor of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, recognizing the “Christian stature and national leadership” of this man. The point of sharing this information in this book was to show the close relationship at the time between the religious community and J. Edgar Hoover. The book also acknowledges that a significant reason for the dedication was the fact that Hoover was born on the site of what is today the church building.
Near the end of the book after telling of the break-in of the FBI office that exposed the COINTELPRO program, the book reports that the commemorative plaque that was mounted on the church building's exterior was stolen—presumably in protest against the FBI's illegal searches. The interior commemorative plaque is still in place.
This all made me curious about what the window looked like and if there was any indication of how today's church members feel about being associated with J. Edgar Hoover. Below are some links to what I found.
Here's a link that explains the origin and history of the J. Edgar Hoover stained glass window.
https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...
This link provides a color photograph of the window.
https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...
Scroll down to the bottom right corner of the website at this link and you will see a video prepared recently by the youth from the church in which they suggest that the window needs to be rededicated to somebody else.
https://www.chumc.net
Since I've already expended more words on the subject of that window than perhaps are in the book, it's time to move on to the review of the rest of the book.
In addition to being a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, this book sites extensive documentation showing how Hoover courted and worked with white Christian leaders—Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical—who he judged to be sympathetic with the goal of sustaining a white Christian America against the forces of communism and other groups that were promoting women’s rights and racial justice.
It was surprising how much Hoover who was Presbyterian associated with and used the training facilities of the Jesuits. The militant character of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius fit Hoover's vision of equipping godly soldiers for the nation’s good. Consequently the rumor was spread that the Catholics were taking over the FBI. To help fight that rumor an annual Protestant vesper service was started. The few African Americans employed by the FBI were not invited to join these religious retreats and services.
Masters of Deceit authored by Hoover became a best seller that resonated with the modern evangelical movement that grew out of the success of Billy Graham’s crusades. Hoover wrote frequent journal articles for Christianity Today which were then re-printed by the FBI and distributed widely at government expense to churches and anyone who asked.
Hoover became a white evangelical hero, but the irony is that he was never one of them since he worshipped at a “mainline” church and associated with the Catholics. There was also the suspicions about his sexuality and relationship with Clyde Tolson, but nevertheless he was honored in evangelical circles.
The FBI did fight the militant forms of White supremacy such as the Ku Klux Klan, but the internal operations of the the FBI simply assumed White supremacy in how it recruited agents and selected religious alliances. Hoover made his opposition to the civil rights protests in many ways, and expressed his antipathy in many ways toward Martin Luther King. These and other evidence indicate Hoover's vision of American nationalism included the continuance of White supremacy that has permeated social customs from its beginning.
Near the end of the book after telling of the break-in of the FBI office that exposed the COINTELPRO program, the book reports that the commemorative plaque that was mounted on the church building's exterior was stolen—presumably in protest against the FBI's illegal searches. The interior commemorative plaque is still in place.
This all made me curious about what the window looked like and if there was any indication of how today's church members feel about being associated with J. Edgar Hoover. Below are some links to what I found.
Here's a link that explains the origin and history of the J. Edgar Hoover stained glass window.
https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...
This link provides a color photograph of the window.
https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...
Scroll down to the bottom right corner of the website at this link and you will see a video prepared recently by the youth from the church in which they suggest that the window needs to be rededicated to somebody else.
https://www.chumc.net
Since I've already expended more words on the subject of that window than perhaps are in the book, it's time to move on to the review of the rest of the book.
In addition to being a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, this book sites extensive documentation showing how Hoover courted and worked with white Christian leaders—Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical—who he judged to be sympathetic with the goal of sustaining a white Christian America against the forces of communism and other groups that were promoting women’s rights and racial justice.
It was surprising how much Hoover who was Presbyterian associated with and used the training facilities of the Jesuits. The militant character of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius fit Hoover's vision of equipping godly soldiers for the nation’s good. Consequently the rumor was spread that the Catholics were taking over the FBI. To help fight that rumor an annual Protestant vesper service was started. The few African Americans employed by the FBI were not invited to join these religious retreats and services.
Masters of Deceit authored by Hoover became a best seller that resonated with the modern evangelical movement that grew out of the success of Billy Graham’s crusades. Hoover wrote frequent journal articles for Christianity Today which were then re-printed by the FBI and distributed widely at government expense to churches and anyone who asked.
Hoover became a white evangelical hero, but the irony is that he was never one of them since he worshipped at a “mainline” church and associated with the Catholics. There was also the suspicions about his sexuality and relationship with Clyde Tolson, but nevertheless he was honored in evangelical circles.
The FBI did fight the militant forms of White supremacy such as the Ku Klux Klan, but the internal operations of the the FBI simply assumed White supremacy in how it recruited agents and selected religious alliances. Hoover made his opposition to the civil rights protests in many ways, and expressed his antipathy in many ways toward Martin Luther King. These and other evidence indicate Hoover's vision of American nationalism included the continuance of White supremacy that has permeated social customs from its beginning.
January 26, 2023
The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover is a fascinating account of how Hoover (and the FBI) partnered with white evangelicals and how they influenced each other. The documents/memos Martin included add a nice touch and I found them interesting. Definitely a book for anyone interested in history or history of christian nationalism.
March 24, 2023
This book did an absolutely incredible job of showing how intricately linked Christian Nationalism was with the FBI. I enjoyed getting a detailed history on Hoover. Anyone who wants to understand why evangelicals overwhelming voted for Trump should read this book.
February 20, 2024
"I sued the FBI to write this book."
Thus begins the Prologue, in which Martin describes his efforts to get the FBI records on Billy Graham, a years-long "game" of litigation, "a saga of hide and seek, lost and found" (x). In the end, Martin was unsuccessful, and Graham's archives have been moved to North Carolina, "under the complete control and supervision of the Graham family, specifically Franklin Graham, and cannot be accessed without his blessing." Nevertheless, Martin's labor "was not in vain," and his research, which drew on "thousands of newly declassified and released FBI files" is unveiled here, telling the story of how J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI "aided and abetted the rise of white Christian nationalism."
This book was genuinely revelatory to me. While I'd heard of "some shady stuff" that the FBI has been involved with, had heard of COINTELPRO, had heard of the FBI's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr., I just hadn't gone deep into it. This wasn't exactly an "expose" (that happened in the 1970s, and a Civil Rights Movement aspect of it was written by David Garrow, The F.B.I. and Martin Luther King, Jr.), but a deeper analysis specifically of the intersection of religion, race, and the FBI.
It covered Hoover's own religious upbringing, and his version of conservative Presbyterian (but not "evangelical") faith. It covered the FBI's connection with Catholic priests and organizations and their partnership in official FBI retreats; it covered the partnership between Hoover, the FBI, and Christianity Today, seen most prominently in the ghost-written Hoover articles printed in the magazine, and then reprinted by the FBI and distributed around the country; and it also covers dozens of interactions with pastors and religious laypeople who wrote to Hoover asking for guidance on cultural and religious issues. Finally, the book covers Martin Luther King, Jr., and contrasts with Elder Lightfoot Solomon Micheaux, a Black pastor in Washington who partnered with the FBI to publicly oppose King during the height of King's conflict with the FBI. The body of the book closes at the start of the 1970s as the public's faith in the Federal government began to unravel -- this was all over a decade before I was born, but I just watched "The Post" (on the pentagon papers) and "All the President's Men" (on Nixon/Watergate), so the theft of the FBI papers, and their release to the press fit right in as yet another episode (and Ben Bradlee even gets a mention or two in the book!).
I think Martin proves his case that a significant aspect of the development of white-evangelicalism in the 20th century involved a partnership with Hoover and the FBI. The deep dive into the Christianity Today articles, the backstory, the message, and their use in broader culture by both institutions, was genuinely eye-opening for me.
I've seen some talk about whether Martin overplayed his evidence, specifically by trying to describe this as "white Christian nationalism" as the subtitle says. I think he lays the case out compellingly, if not conclusively. In other words, I'm convinced, but I can see why others might not be completely. What I think this book does is opens up door to further work (or just further reading of the work that's already been done, but is unfamiliar), and I would point more specifically to the nexus "Christian anti-Communism" and race, engaging these kinds of questions:
- why were so many keen to smear MLK and the CRM as "communist"?
- the Southern Presbyterians (start with L. Nelson Bell, editor of Christianity Today) who defended segregation and opposed integration as part of a "communist" plot
- the opposition to the National Council of Churches as influenced by "communists" (see James Findlay, Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950-1970)
- the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, and their racialized attacks on the Black freedom struggle as a communist plot
In other words, I think there is an important chapter in the overarching history of "White Christian Nationalism" that is the anti-communist movement, a movement with a wide range of figures, institutions, and a spectrum of modes of engagement, but which has at its core racial (White), religious (Christian), and a political (Nationalist) components. There will be some who want to isolate certain aspects of this, usually wishing to exclude the racial component ("it wasn't racial, it was religious, look at how they talk about doctrine"; "it wasn't racial, it was political, look at how they talk about policy"). It's a kind of convenient color-blindness when looking at the evidence, but I think there is a mounting body of evidence that makes reckoning with the fundamental racial component of all of this inescapable.
In this vein, I think Martin's book makes a genuine and important contribution. Highly recommended.
Thus begins the Prologue, in which Martin describes his efforts to get the FBI records on Billy Graham, a years-long "game" of litigation, "a saga of hide and seek, lost and found" (x). In the end, Martin was unsuccessful, and Graham's archives have been moved to North Carolina, "under the complete control and supervision of the Graham family, specifically Franklin Graham, and cannot be accessed without his blessing." Nevertheless, Martin's labor "was not in vain," and his research, which drew on "thousands of newly declassified and released FBI files" is unveiled here, telling the story of how J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI "aided and abetted the rise of white Christian nationalism."
This book was genuinely revelatory to me. While I'd heard of "some shady stuff" that the FBI has been involved with, had heard of COINTELPRO, had heard of the FBI's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr., I just hadn't gone deep into it. This wasn't exactly an "expose" (that happened in the 1970s, and a Civil Rights Movement aspect of it was written by David Garrow, The F.B.I. and Martin Luther King, Jr.), but a deeper analysis specifically of the intersection of religion, race, and the FBI.
It covered Hoover's own religious upbringing, and his version of conservative Presbyterian (but not "evangelical") faith. It covered the FBI's connection with Catholic priests and organizations and their partnership in official FBI retreats; it covered the partnership between Hoover, the FBI, and Christianity Today, seen most prominently in the ghost-written Hoover articles printed in the magazine, and then reprinted by the FBI and distributed around the country; and it also covers dozens of interactions with pastors and religious laypeople who wrote to Hoover asking for guidance on cultural and religious issues. Finally, the book covers Martin Luther King, Jr., and contrasts with Elder Lightfoot Solomon Micheaux, a Black pastor in Washington who partnered with the FBI to publicly oppose King during the height of King's conflict with the FBI. The body of the book closes at the start of the 1970s as the public's faith in the Federal government began to unravel -- this was all over a decade before I was born, but I just watched "The Post" (on the pentagon papers) and "All the President's Men" (on Nixon/Watergate), so the theft of the FBI papers, and their release to the press fit right in as yet another episode (and Ben Bradlee even gets a mention or two in the book!).
I think Martin proves his case that a significant aspect of the development of white-evangelicalism in the 20th century involved a partnership with Hoover and the FBI. The deep dive into the Christianity Today articles, the backstory, the message, and their use in broader culture by both institutions, was genuinely eye-opening for me.
I've seen some talk about whether Martin overplayed his evidence, specifically by trying to describe this as "white Christian nationalism" as the subtitle says. I think he lays the case out compellingly, if not conclusively. In other words, I'm convinced, but I can see why others might not be completely. What I think this book does is opens up door to further work (or just further reading of the work that's already been done, but is unfamiliar), and I would point more specifically to the nexus "Christian anti-Communism" and race, engaging these kinds of questions:
- why were so many keen to smear MLK and the CRM as "communist"?
- the Southern Presbyterians (start with L. Nelson Bell, editor of Christianity Today) who defended segregation and opposed integration as part of a "communist" plot
- the opposition to the National Council of Churches as influenced by "communists" (see James Findlay, Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950-1970)
- the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, and their racialized attacks on the Black freedom struggle as a communist plot
In other words, I think there is an important chapter in the overarching history of "White Christian Nationalism" that is the anti-communist movement, a movement with a wide range of figures, institutions, and a spectrum of modes of engagement, but which has at its core racial (White), religious (Christian), and a political (Nationalist) components. There will be some who want to isolate certain aspects of this, usually wishing to exclude the racial component ("it wasn't racial, it was religious, look at how they talk about doctrine"; "it wasn't racial, it was political, look at how they talk about policy"). It's a kind of convenient color-blindness when looking at the evidence, but I think there is a mounting body of evidence that makes reckoning with the fundamental racial component of all of this inescapable.
In this vein, I think Martin's book makes a genuine and important contribution. Highly recommended.
February 14, 2024
This book was very surprising to me. I had one image of the FBI but learned alot from reding this book. Hoover really emphasized faith, the importance of upholding Christian ideals among his men. The FBI was a truly patriarchal organization filled predominately with white, Christian men. I knew he didn't life Martin Luther King Jr but I never understood why or to what extent. According to this author, Hoover believed King was a threat to America's Christian foundation and it was the FBI's duty to protect the nation from him. Hoover's main focus was on ridding the US of communism and again, according to this author, Hoover believed godless communists had a hand in all civil rights protests. It took me awhile to get through the book as it was full of so much information but I am glad I read it as it was very enlightening.
March 23, 2025
Fascinating as well as disturbing deep dive into the white evangelical nationalist legacy of the FBI, with tons of primary sources cited and quoted. It's quite accessible to those of us without a history degree, but I'd rate it 3.75 purely because another line edit could have smoothed out some of the writing. Glad I tackled this one and thanks to the recommendation of Dr. Jemar Tisby (via podcast, that is--not personally to me; I'm not that cool).
Read
August 7, 2023J. Edgar Hoover believed the United States was God’s chosen nation. Hoover, who was director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, thought the Bureau’s mission was to defeat the godless forces of liberalism, feminism and civil rights. In Hoover’s view, to overcome these foes America had to yield to his preferred brand of Christianity – a Christianity unerringly conservative, patriotic and white.
The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover demonstrates how the FBI director infamous for persecuting Martin Luther King worked systematically to champion his own religion. Using thousands of newly declassified FBI documents, Martin describes how Hoover bent the culture of the FBI, and collaborated with famous evangelicals and Catholics to try to establish his Christian America. Together they fomented the political rise of white Christian nationalism, with vast implications for electoral politics, the concept of national security, and the role of race and religion in US identity.
Hoover had been devout since boyhood. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1895, he volunteered as a Sunday School teacher and prided himself on his knowledge of Scripture. Before his father fell ill, and it became necessary for him to choose higher-paying employment, the young Hoover had intended on becoming a Christian minister. Instead he studied law, worked in the Department of Justice and, aged just 29, was appointed to lead the FBI.
As ‘America’s top cop’, Hoover turned the FBI into a blend of a Sunday School, a private-members club, and a white supremacist clique. He demoted all non-white special agents, as well as most of their Jewish counterparts, and made Christianity part of FBI training and social events. In contrast to the fiercely anti-Catholic sentiment in much of US society, Hoover respected orthodox Catholicism for its moral and theological rigour. He welcomed Catholicism into the Bureau, instigating an annual FBI Mass and an annual Jesuit spiritual retreat for all agents, regardless of their religion.
Read the rest at HistoryToday.com.
Daniel Rey is a writer and critic based in New York.
The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover demonstrates how the FBI director infamous for persecuting Martin Luther King worked systematically to champion his own religion. Using thousands of newly declassified FBI documents, Martin describes how Hoover bent the culture of the FBI, and collaborated with famous evangelicals and Catholics to try to establish his Christian America. Together they fomented the political rise of white Christian nationalism, with vast implications for electoral politics, the concept of national security, and the role of race and religion in US identity.
Hoover had been devout since boyhood. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1895, he volunteered as a Sunday School teacher and prided himself on his knowledge of Scripture. Before his father fell ill, and it became necessary for him to choose higher-paying employment, the young Hoover had intended on becoming a Christian minister. Instead he studied law, worked in the Department of Justice and, aged just 29, was appointed to lead the FBI.
As ‘America’s top cop’, Hoover turned the FBI into a blend of a Sunday School, a private-members club, and a white supremacist clique. He demoted all non-white special agents, as well as most of their Jewish counterparts, and made Christianity part of FBI training and social events. In contrast to the fiercely anti-Catholic sentiment in much of US society, Hoover respected orthodox Catholicism for its moral and theological rigour. He welcomed Catholicism into the Bureau, instigating an annual FBI Mass and an annual Jesuit spiritual retreat for all agents, regardless of their religion.
Read the rest at HistoryToday.com.
Daniel Rey is a writer and critic based in New York.
April 25, 2023
Very in-depth, controlled, detailed contribution. The main takeaway is the incessant obsession with Communism that has plauged White evangelicalism since the Inception of the United States. It's permeated throughout the Federal Bureau of Investigation, thanks to Hoover and the propagandist Machines he formed to Branch off of and in partnership with the bureau. White evangelicals tend to look for the celebrity in a savior every generation..
May 16, 2023
A shocking book. Unbelievable, actually. Hoover and the FBI was nothing but a crazy religious, white supremacist organization, and sadly, not much has changed. My god! Read it.
September 9, 2023
Fantastic work of non-fiction! This new history of U.S.A.’s past is a must read for historians.
December 15, 2023
Was a touch repetitive at times. But I’d say the author backed up the title. Thesis proven. Sorta wild and mind blowing.
August 15, 2024
Really should be more like 3.5 stars (currently drafting a petition for Goodreads to instate half stars, lmk if you want to sign). Very interesting content, I’d say particularly in the beginning as it discusses the hiring and religious practices of the FBI as an institution/employer and at the end when describing Hoover’s weaponization of the FBI to illegally stalwart the civil rights movement and weaken MLK Jr. Generally, however, the book suffers from a pretty bland writing style which made it particularly difficult to get through the middle portions.
February 14, 2024
Terrific revelation of just how enmeshed the FBI has been with a particular form of conservative White American Christianity, what Martin calls White Christian nationalism. So many mind-blowing revelations here, especially how taxpayer dollars basically funded the FBI's promotion of conservative Christianity as the only appropriate religion in America, as well as showing how J. Edgar Hoover's racism and sexism shaped the FBI and continues to influence it. You'll never look at the FBI the same way again – nor should you.
November 10, 2025
Content is incredible, writing drags a bit
July 23, 2023
Summary: A study of how J. Edgar Hoover worked in concert with sympathetic Christian leaders to foster his vision of a White Christian America.
In 1966 a stained glass window at the Capital Hill Methodist Church was dedicated in honor of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, recognizing the “Christian stature and national leadership” of this man. As it turns out, this was no isolated event, as Lerone A. Martin shows in this book, based on research of thousands of newly released files, some of which Martin sued for under the Freedom of Information Act.
Martin does several things in this book. He shows how Hoover, reflecting his own Christian beliefs built the FBI as a white, male, Christian law enforcement agency focused on sustaining a white Christian America against the forces of communism and other groups (read women and people of color) who would dilute that vision. He documents how Hoover courted and worked with white Christian leaders, Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical, who he deemed sympathetic with that vision after careful vetting. And he shows how these leaders promoted Hoover’s vision through their pulpits, platforms, and publications, fostering a broad Christian publication who looked to Hoover as a spiritual authority.
He begins with the formative influences in Hoover’s life as a young man, including his strict Presbyterian upbringing, and aspirations to go to seminary and ministry. His father diverted him into the study of law, leading to work in the Department of Justice, leading a task force responding to a series of bombings targeting prominent Americans by radical elements. This forged his passion to uphold Americanism against anti-American elements, which he soon had power to pursue as the first director of the Bureau of Investigation, later the FBI, in 1924.
Hoover required, in his oath for agents, that they be both soldiers and ministers in this crusade to protect Christian America. A Jesuit retreat house in Annapolis led by Fr. Robert S. Lloyd, SJ, played a key role. Annual, regular bi-annual spiritual retreats were organized with Hoover’s blessing for agents, with FBI leaders as retreat organizers, with Fr. Lloyd leading them in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. The militant character of the Jesuits fit Hoovers vision of equiping godly soldiers for the nation’s good. Martin also traces the development of Masses and prayer breakfasts that emphasized the important of Christian values in the fight to preserve a moral America. Both the religious leaders Hoover worked with and the agents who participated were white, male, and nearly all Christian in religious identification. At this time, Blacks could only work in support roles like being chauffers and could not participate.
Hoover’s Masters of Deceit, a book against communism that became a bestseller, resonated with the nascent evangelical movement birthed out of the success of Billy Graham’s crusades and the rise of their own journal, Christianity Today. It was disturbing to learn how eager Carl F.H. Henry, the editor of Christianity Today was to publish articles by Hoover in the publication. Hoover was only too glad to comply, publishing a series of articles in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, reprinted by other evangelical organizations, published as booklets, and re-printed by Hoover and the FBI and distributed widely at government expense to churches and anyone who asked.
In the process, Hoover became a kind of arbiter, a secular pope who determined what was orthodox and what was not. His FBI investigated the Revised Standard Version, published by the National Council of Churches, which Hoover considered a communist front. As civil rights developed and Martin Luther King, Jr. arose as a leader of the movement, Hoover turned the agency’s energies toward them, not to protect them against the vicious attacks of White authorities but to ferret out communist influences and discredit the movement, protecting the White southern establishment.
The irony Martin sees in all this is that while Hoover became a white evangelical hero, he was never one of them, not sharing their focus on conversion experiences and worshipping at a “mainline” church and keeping company with Catholics. Despite suspicions about his sexuality and relationship with Clyde Tolson, he was universally honored in evangelical circles, having his picture taken with Biully Graham and many others and honored at many evangelical gatherings.
I found it disturbing to see the lack of discernment among Christians of various stripes in becoming instruments of Hoover’s rather than Jesus’s gospel, amplifying his power and influence, even while he surveiled them! The temptation to claim Hoover as “one of ours” is evident, showing evangelicalism’s pathological attachment to celebrities to give them credibility.
Finally, while Hoover did speak against the more extreme elements of the Klan, we see the patterns of using government structures to maintain White power and to advocate for a version of White Christian nationalism and the ready complicity of White evangelicals who uncritically welcomed these efforts. Some will argue aganst this book that Hoover never promoted White supremacy. What Martin shows is that Hoover simply assumed White supremacy in how he recruited agents, ran the bureau and made religious alliances to advance his agenda.
While many trace the yoking of White evangelicalism to visions of American greatness to the Reagan years, Martin reveals to us that in fact, this was a pattern from the very beginnings of this movement. Some have suggested that racism is America’s “original sin.” This work makes the case that for the contemporary evangelical movement, White Christian nationalism is it’s version of “original sin” and that J. Edgar Hoover played a leading role as Tempter.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
In 1966 a stained glass window at the Capital Hill Methodist Church was dedicated in honor of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, recognizing the “Christian stature and national leadership” of this man. As it turns out, this was no isolated event, as Lerone A. Martin shows in this book, based on research of thousands of newly released files, some of which Martin sued for under the Freedom of Information Act.
Martin does several things in this book. He shows how Hoover, reflecting his own Christian beliefs built the FBI as a white, male, Christian law enforcement agency focused on sustaining a white Christian America against the forces of communism and other groups (read women and people of color) who would dilute that vision. He documents how Hoover courted and worked with white Christian leaders, Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical, who he deemed sympathetic with that vision after careful vetting. And he shows how these leaders promoted Hoover’s vision through their pulpits, platforms, and publications, fostering a broad Christian publication who looked to Hoover as a spiritual authority.
He begins with the formative influences in Hoover’s life as a young man, including his strict Presbyterian upbringing, and aspirations to go to seminary and ministry. His father diverted him into the study of law, leading to work in the Department of Justice, leading a task force responding to a series of bombings targeting prominent Americans by radical elements. This forged his passion to uphold Americanism against anti-American elements, which he soon had power to pursue as the first director of the Bureau of Investigation, later the FBI, in 1924.
Hoover required, in his oath for agents, that they be both soldiers and ministers in this crusade to protect Christian America. A Jesuit retreat house in Annapolis led by Fr. Robert S. Lloyd, SJ, played a key role. Annual, regular bi-annual spiritual retreats were organized with Hoover’s blessing for agents, with FBI leaders as retreat organizers, with Fr. Lloyd leading them in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. The militant character of the Jesuits fit Hoovers vision of equiping godly soldiers for the nation’s good. Martin also traces the development of Masses and prayer breakfasts that emphasized the important of Christian values in the fight to preserve a moral America. Both the religious leaders Hoover worked with and the agents who participated were white, male, and nearly all Christian in religious identification. At this time, Blacks could only work in support roles like being chauffers and could not participate.
Hoover’s Masters of Deceit, a book against communism that became a bestseller, resonated with the nascent evangelical movement birthed out of the success of Billy Graham’s crusades and the rise of their own journal, Christianity Today. It was disturbing to learn how eager Carl F.H. Henry, the editor of Christianity Today was to publish articles by Hoover in the publication. Hoover was only too glad to comply, publishing a series of articles in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, reprinted by other evangelical organizations, published as booklets, and re-printed by Hoover and the FBI and distributed widely at government expense to churches and anyone who asked.
In the process, Hoover became a kind of arbiter, a secular pope who determined what was orthodox and what was not. His FBI investigated the Revised Standard Version, published by the National Council of Churches, which Hoover considered a communist front. As civil rights developed and Martin Luther King, Jr. arose as a leader of the movement, Hoover turned the agency’s energies toward them, not to protect them against the vicious attacks of White authorities but to ferret out communist influences and discredit the movement, protecting the White southern establishment.
The irony Martin sees in all this is that while Hoover became a white evangelical hero, he was never one of them, not sharing their focus on conversion experiences and worshipping at a “mainline” church and keeping company with Catholics. Despite suspicions about his sexuality and relationship with Clyde Tolson, he was universally honored in evangelical circles, having his picture taken with Biully Graham and many others and honored at many evangelical gatherings.
I found it disturbing to see the lack of discernment among Christians of various stripes in becoming instruments of Hoover’s rather than Jesus’s gospel, amplifying his power and influence, even while he surveiled them! The temptation to claim Hoover as “one of ours” is evident, showing evangelicalism’s pathological attachment to celebrities to give them credibility.
Finally, while Hoover did speak against the more extreme elements of the Klan, we see the patterns of using government structures to maintain White power and to advocate for a version of White Christian nationalism and the ready complicity of White evangelicals who uncritically welcomed these efforts. Some will argue aganst this book that Hoover never promoted White supremacy. What Martin shows is that Hoover simply assumed White supremacy in how he recruited agents, ran the bureau and made religious alliances to advance his agenda.
While many trace the yoking of White evangelicalism to visions of American greatness to the Reagan years, Martin reveals to us that in fact, this was a pattern from the very beginnings of this movement. Some have suggested that racism is America’s “original sin.” This work makes the case that for the contemporary evangelical movement, White Christian nationalism is it’s version of “original sin” and that J. Edgar Hoover played a leading role as Tempter.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
October 26, 2024
i wish this book would become as popular as jesus and john wayne. it’s such an important history in understanding a crucial aspect about the history of evangelicalism and christian nationalism. and just really well written storytelling. i love this book and think other non-academics would find it interesting too!!
December 7, 2023
Summary: J. Edgar Hoover's understanding of Christianity significantly influenced his management of the FBI, and in turn, the FBI impacted the broader development of what has become the Christian Nationalist movement in a modern sense.
If Kristen Kobez DuMez had not (multiple times) recommended the Gospel of J Edgar Hoover and had not been briefly on sale as a Kindle book, I would not have picked it up. I have a limited interest in the FBI or Hoover. But her strong recommendation of the book's writing made me pick it up. In the opening pages, two stories frame the book nicely. First, the introduction talks about the legal maneuvers required to get the FBI to honor their FIOA requirements and how they initially did not honor their legal requirements and suffered no real consequences for violating FIOA requirements. The second early story in the book that I think matters is how a church stained-glass window was dedicated to Hoover. I read that description as meaning that it was a stained glass window of Hoover, but instead, it was a window dedicated to Hoover. I did not realize my mistake until I read a review of this book on Goodreads. That review linked to an image of the windows, which is helpful for context. (J Edgar Hoover window) I think I was primed to understand the window as images of Hoover because of Southwestern Baptist Seminary's stained glass windows (artist site), which were of many of SBC figures, including the seminary president who originally commissioned the windows and who was forced to resign several years ago.
Lenore Martin's perspective is evident throughout the book. The following is as good of a thesis statement as any:
My knowledge of the FBI in the early years is primarily about their roles (sometimes positive, but often negative) regarding the Civil Rights Era. (I was interested to learn that the FBI opened 11,328 civil rights investigations but only had 14 convictions.) And the early FBI's role in investigating sex trafficking concerning the Mann Act. The Mann Act was officially titled The White Slave Traffic Act, but neither that full title nor the colloquial term was mentioned in The Gospel of J Edgar Hoover.
Hoover was a very determined young man, and his strict Christian upbringing and military high school training were relevant to his later work. Hoover started working with Justice Department records while attending night school, where he obtained a Masters Degree in Law. From those lowly beginnings, he rose quickly and was only 29 when he was given leadership over the department that eventually became the FBI as we know it today.
The book gives an overview of his early life and preparation to become the FBI director. But it very quickly moves to its central point. The Gospel of J Edgar Hoover is about how the FBI was rooted in an explicitly religious foundation that supported what Hoover called "Americanism" and then how Hoover worked with White Evangelicals to get out his message of Americanism; then, in part three, how Hoover used the FBI to police Americanism.
That first section details how Hoover understood the FBI to be both soldiers and ministers of the gospel. This was highly explicit. Part of the oath that the FBI agents included this line: “I shall, as a minister, seek to supply comfort, advice, and aid to those who may be in need of such benefits; as a soldier, I shall wage vigorous warfare against the enemies of my country, of its laws, and of its principles.” (p31)
To be a soldier and minister was equally crucial to Hoover. The special agents were required to participate in annual Ignatian retreats and worship services to prepare them spiritually for their jobs. The clergy supporting those retreats and services were always well vetted and usually had clear fidelity to both the US and Hoover as an individual. Hoover wanted a particular look for the agents that designated them as soldiers. Until the late 1960s, when infiltrating civil rights groups required adding Black agents, the agents were always white, with a weight and look that Hoover associated with health and what it meant to be an American. For a while, there was an explicit partnership with the National Association of Evangelicals to recruit evangelicals into the FBI workforce. That included an ideological requirement. There are frequent jokes in pop culture and movies about "looking like a federal agent," but there is a reality to this because of Hoover's leadership.
Part of what this book and some other reading I have done is to raise the question about when someone will write a book about the shift from the mainline protestant view of the positives of civil religion in the late 19th and early 20th century and the skepticism of civil religion and nationalism among fundamentalists to the "party realignment" where the mainline protests were more skeptical of civil religion or Christian Nationalism, while evangelicals became more accepting of it. This parallels the political party realignment, which is why I use that framing. But as far as I know, that history has yet to be written. George Marsden's Twilight of American Enlightenment is part of that story, but it does not connect to the rise of evangelical-oriented Christian Nationalism, only the breaking apart of the consensus on civil religion among mainline protestants.
Part two of the book is about how Hoover partnered with the brand-new Christianity Today to convey his message of Americanism to the masses. Hoover approved these articles, but they were ghost-written by agents. Hoover did not accept payment from Christianity Today for the article but was given the rights to reprint the articles, and the FBI packaged the articles into widely distributed pamphlets, far surpassing the distribution within the original magazine. Martin frames Hoover using Christianity Today, but Christianity Today also consciously supports Hoover's mission and tactics, especially its anti-communism. Hoover also published (again ghostwritten by the same team of agents) a best-selling book about fighting communism through his mix of militarism and spiritual methods similar to his Christianity Today articles.
The book's third section was about how Hoover viewed his role as "Bishop, Champion and Crusader" (these are chapter titles) and policed those he viewed as enemies, especially the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr in particular.
Earlier in the book, there is a discussion about Hoover and the FBI leadership's understanding of following the law while policing.
This principle of the ends justifying the means partly because it was a spiritual calling that was ironed out in the FBI's fight against communism, which made the later violations against civil rights organizations and individuals easy to justify. The Bureau concluded that the National Council of Churches was a communist trojan horse. Other religious groups that advocated justice were also viewed as overtly communist or had allowed communist propaganda to influence them. "Any person who was a communist or shared the slightest affinity for so-called communist ideals could not possibly be a Christian." (p143)
The initial investigation into King showed that he believed in his work as a Christian religious commitment, not an atheist communist front. But Hoover refused to accept that result, and his agents eventually followed his lead. Because they viewed King as the most important civil rights leader and the civil rights movement as a threat to national security, there was no need to use only legal means of surveillance or influence to oppose the civil rights movement. Hoover also opposed the Klan and infiltrated Klan organizations, but the opposition to the Klan was not their advocacy of segregation (which Hoover supported) but their use of violence.
Martin made his main point that Hoover and the FBI were religiously influenced, and that did work to support the movement that we today call Christian Nationalism. I also thought the history of the FBI's willingness to use illegal means for what they perceived as good ends (often influenced by their understanding of "Americanism") was made. I did want more of a connection to the white catholic leadership beyond the Jesuit connections. I also think Martin has connected the FBI to the support of early Neo-evangelicalism that grew out of Billy Graham's influence but not to the narrower understanding of Christian Nationalism, which is not all evangelicalism. Similar to how I wanted more about the FBI's relationship to Catholicism, not all white Catholics are supporters of Christian Nationalism, although some are. This continues to be a problem for writing around Christian Nationalism. Some white Christians also are Christian nationalists, but many are not. And too often the writing about Christian Nationalism seems to implicate all white Christians without distinction. And the nuance matters. I also wanted more biography of Hoover. I know that more biography would have required a much longer book, but the biographical content was pretty light.
This review was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-gospel-of-j-edg...
If Kristen Kobez DuMez had not (multiple times) recommended the Gospel of J Edgar Hoover and had not been briefly on sale as a Kindle book, I would not have picked it up. I have a limited interest in the FBI or Hoover. But her strong recommendation of the book's writing made me pick it up. In the opening pages, two stories frame the book nicely. First, the introduction talks about the legal maneuvers required to get the FBI to honor their FIOA requirements and how they initially did not honor their legal requirements and suffered no real consequences for violating FIOA requirements. The second early story in the book that I think matters is how a church stained-glass window was dedicated to Hoover. I read that description as meaning that it was a stained glass window of Hoover, but instead, it was a window dedicated to Hoover. I did not realize my mistake until I read a review of this book on Goodreads. That review linked to an image of the windows, which is helpful for context. (J Edgar Hoover window) I think I was primed to understand the window as images of Hoover because of Southwestern Baptist Seminary's stained glass windows (artist site), which were of many of SBC figures, including the seminary president who originally commissioned the windows and who was forced to resign several years ago.
Lenore Martin's perspective is evident throughout the book. The following is as good of a thesis statement as any:
"As FBI director from 1924 until his death in 1972, Hoover was a political constant, paying lip service to the Constitution, but establishing white Christian nationalism as the actual foundation of his FBI. It mattered little who was in office or which party was in control of Congress. Faith helped him determine the nation’s enemies and how they should be attacked and defeated. He saw national security in cosmic terms. Nothing was more existential than national security, the very salvation of the nation’s soul." (p7)
and
"The FBI made it very clear: a secure and safe America was a Christian America, one in which white evangelicals and conservative white Catholics worked together to maintain the levers of cultural and political power."
My knowledge of the FBI in the early years is primarily about their roles (sometimes positive, but often negative) regarding the Civil Rights Era. (I was interested to learn that the FBI opened 11,328 civil rights investigations but only had 14 convictions.) And the early FBI's role in investigating sex trafficking concerning the Mann Act. The Mann Act was officially titled The White Slave Traffic Act, but neither that full title nor the colloquial term was mentioned in The Gospel of J Edgar Hoover.
Hoover was a very determined young man, and his strict Christian upbringing and military high school training were relevant to his later work. Hoover started working with Justice Department records while attending night school, where he obtained a Masters Degree in Law. From those lowly beginnings, he rose quickly and was only 29 when he was given leadership over the department that eventually became the FBI as we know it today.
The book gives an overview of his early life and preparation to become the FBI director. But it very quickly moves to its central point. The Gospel of J Edgar Hoover is about how the FBI was rooted in an explicitly religious foundation that supported what Hoover called "Americanism" and then how Hoover worked with White Evangelicals to get out his message of Americanism; then, in part three, how Hoover used the FBI to police Americanism.
That first section details how Hoover understood the FBI to be both soldiers and ministers of the gospel. This was highly explicit. Part of the oath that the FBI agents included this line: “I shall, as a minister, seek to supply comfort, advice, and aid to those who may be in need of such benefits; as a soldier, I shall wage vigorous warfare against the enemies of my country, of its laws, and of its principles.” (p31)
To be a soldier and minister was equally crucial to Hoover. The special agents were required to participate in annual Ignatian retreats and worship services to prepare them spiritually for their jobs. The clergy supporting those retreats and services were always well vetted and usually had clear fidelity to both the US and Hoover as an individual. Hoover wanted a particular look for the agents that designated them as soldiers. Until the late 1960s, when infiltrating civil rights groups required adding Black agents, the agents were always white, with a weight and look that Hoover associated with health and what it meant to be an American. For a while, there was an explicit partnership with the National Association of Evangelicals to recruit evangelicals into the FBI workforce. That included an ideological requirement. There are frequent jokes in pop culture and movies about "looking like a federal agent," but there is a reality to this because of Hoover's leadership.
Part of what this book and some other reading I have done is to raise the question about when someone will write a book about the shift from the mainline protestant view of the positives of civil religion in the late 19th and early 20th century and the skepticism of civil religion and nationalism among fundamentalists to the "party realignment" where the mainline protests were more skeptical of civil religion or Christian Nationalism, while evangelicals became more accepting of it. This parallels the political party realignment, which is why I use that framing. But as far as I know, that history has yet to be written. George Marsden's Twilight of American Enlightenment is part of that story, but it does not connect to the rise of evangelical-oriented Christian Nationalism, only the breaking apart of the consensus on civil religion among mainline protestants.
Part two of the book is about how Hoover partnered with the brand-new Christianity Today to convey his message of Americanism to the masses. Hoover approved these articles, but they were ghost-written by agents. Hoover did not accept payment from Christianity Today for the article but was given the rights to reprint the articles, and the FBI packaged the articles into widely distributed pamphlets, far surpassing the distribution within the original magazine. Martin frames Hoover using Christianity Today, but Christianity Today also consciously supports Hoover's mission and tactics, especially its anti-communism. Hoover also published (again ghostwritten by the same team of agents) a best-selling book about fighting communism through his mix of militarism and spiritual methods similar to his Christianity Today articles.
The book's third section was about how Hoover viewed his role as "Bishop, Champion and Crusader" (these are chapter titles) and policed those he viewed as enemies, especially the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr in particular.
Earlier in the book, there is a discussion about Hoover and the FBI leadership's understanding of following the law while policing.
"SA [Special Agent] John P. Mohr, the Assistant Director in Charge of the Administrative Division, laughed when a young law school student inquired about the legality of the Bureau’s labor. “You’re still in law school—which means you’re still an idealist,” he told the neophyte. The Bureau’s number four man was in charge of the budget and all personnel matters. The man with the power to hire and fire fully expected and instructed special agents to break the law. He told the future special agent to always remember: extralegal and illegal methods were completely appropriate, because “When it’s for the right reasons, the end does justify the means.” There was no ambiguity in Hoover’s FBI, the message coming from the top was clear: faithful special agents knew the Bureau’s righteous ends justified any and all means. These moral ends were determined by the Bureau’s Christian nationalism, not the US Constitution. “And if the moral values ran into conflict with the legal principles,” one special agent noted, “the legal principles had to give way.” (p57)
This principle of the ends justifying the means partly because it was a spiritual calling that was ironed out in the FBI's fight against communism, which made the later violations against civil rights organizations and individuals easy to justify. The Bureau concluded that the National Council of Churches was a communist trojan horse. Other religious groups that advocated justice were also viewed as overtly communist or had allowed communist propaganda to influence them. "Any person who was a communist or shared the slightest affinity for so-called communist ideals could not possibly be a Christian." (p143)
"The FBI’s religious commitments influenced the decision to begin a direct investigation of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. For years, J. Edgar Hoover was convinced that atheistic communism, not religious fervor, was fueling the fight for Black equality. “The Negro situation,” he testified before Congress in 1958, is “being exploited fully and continuously by Communists on a national scale.” Hoover viewed this purported communist infiltration not simply as a political debate, but as an attack on America’s Christian heritage. It was the duty of the FBI, he told his employees in 1961, to “reaffirm” the Bureau’s “Christian purpose … to defend and perpetuate the dignity of the Nation’s Christian endowment.” Christianity was the bedrock of the nation’s heritage and the FBI was “the main line of resistance against all enemies of our heritage.” (p229)
The initial investigation into King showed that he believed in his work as a Christian religious commitment, not an atheist communist front. But Hoover refused to accept that result, and his agents eventually followed his lead. Because they viewed King as the most important civil rights leader and the civil rights movement as a threat to national security, there was no need to use only legal means of surveillance or influence to oppose the civil rights movement. Hoover also opposed the Klan and infiltrated Klan organizations, but the opposition to the Klan was not their advocacy of segregation (which Hoover supported) but their use of violence.
Martin made his main point that Hoover and the FBI were religiously influenced, and that did work to support the movement that we today call Christian Nationalism. I also thought the history of the FBI's willingness to use illegal means for what they perceived as good ends (often influenced by their understanding of "Americanism") was made. I did want more of a connection to the white catholic leadership beyond the Jesuit connections. I also think Martin has connected the FBI to the support of early Neo-evangelicalism that grew out of Billy Graham's influence but not to the narrower understanding of Christian Nationalism, which is not all evangelicalism. Similar to how I wanted more about the FBI's relationship to Catholicism, not all white Catholics are supporters of Christian Nationalism, although some are. This continues to be a problem for writing around Christian Nationalism. Some white Christians also are Christian nationalists, but many are not. And too often the writing about Christian Nationalism seems to implicate all white Christians without distinction. And the nuance matters. I also wanted more biography of Hoover. I know that more biography would have required a much longer book, but the biographical content was pretty light.
This review was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-gospel-of-j-edg...
October 15, 2023
Note: I borrowed this from our public library.
This is outstanding scholarship. For those who are Christians in America, it is a warning of how easily we let ourselves become duped by those in authority over us who seek to make us compliant, theologically malleable, and loyal to only our own kind. For those who are not Christians in America, it is a sobering and informative reminder that all that glitters is not always gold -- or even good.
The summary of this book is that we Christians in America were fooled by an incredible interweaving of white Evangelicalism / white mainline Christianity / white Roman Catholic Christianity with the power of the state. We had our religion twisted to become a tool to divide Christians in America between those who were loyal to "good" and thus to America, and those who chose to live separated from the aegis of the state & who therefore were both "anti-Christian" and "anti-America" with no division between those two states.
J. Edgar Hoover corrupted American Christianity by making it synonymous with white identity, white patriarchy, and white supremacy. And while this was a dastardly deed, more dastardly was how eagerly the movers and shakers of white American Christianity took upon themselves to do obeisance to Hoover and the American empire-government.
And we all fell into it with them, because, after all, these were our "leaders" who "knew better." From Christianity Today publishing Hoover's astonishingly racist and imperialist "sermons" with the imprimatur of people like Carl F. Henry to Hoover's FBI printing and distributing his "sermons" with funds from U.S. taxpayers, the white Christian faith in America became an agency of the U.S. government to instill the "right" values into us that prophetically echo the foundations of white Christian Nationalism.
Dr. Martin has done his homework to develop and produce this book. It is well-researched extensively footnoted, and brings to light what has been right there in front of us but we could not rouse ourselves to believe.
Kudos for this excellent work.
This is outstanding scholarship. For those who are Christians in America, it is a warning of how easily we let ourselves become duped by those in authority over us who seek to make us compliant, theologically malleable, and loyal to only our own kind. For those who are not Christians in America, it is a sobering and informative reminder that all that glitters is not always gold -- or even good.
The summary of this book is that we Christians in America were fooled by an incredible interweaving of white Evangelicalism / white mainline Christianity / white Roman Catholic Christianity with the power of the state. We had our religion twisted to become a tool to divide Christians in America between those who were loyal to "good" and thus to America, and those who chose to live separated from the aegis of the state & who therefore were both "anti-Christian" and "anti-America" with no division between those two states.
J. Edgar Hoover corrupted American Christianity by making it synonymous with white identity, white patriarchy, and white supremacy. And while this was a dastardly deed, more dastardly was how eagerly the movers and shakers of white American Christianity took upon themselves to do obeisance to Hoover and the American empire-government.
And we all fell into it with them, because, after all, these were our "leaders" who "knew better." From Christianity Today publishing Hoover's astonishingly racist and imperialist "sermons" with the imprimatur of people like Carl F. Henry to Hoover's FBI printing and distributing his "sermons" with funds from U.S. taxpayers, the white Christian faith in America became an agency of the U.S. government to instill the "right" values into us that prophetically echo the foundations of white Christian Nationalism.
Dr. Martin has done his homework to develop and produce this book. It is well-researched extensively footnoted, and brings to light what has been right there in front of us but we could not rouse ourselves to believe.
Kudos for this excellent work.
December 8, 2023
I first heard about this book in an interview with Jonathan Eig, author of the biography King. Hoover is a figure who has been portrayed in a great deal of media, none of them flattering, though one I felt I didn’t know a great deal about. I was also curious about the premise of this book.
This book was a bit of a disappointment. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s stuck between the edge of being an essay and a topical non-fiction piece, and it fails to do well as either.
Martin also has a lot of different topics he wishes to cover here, from Hoover’s relationship with the evangelical side of Christianity, to Hoover’s racist ideology, to the topics of religion and white nationalism, to how Hoover’s influence on the FBI impacts the United States and American Christianity today. The last topic in particular isn’t given enough space in this book, and it needs a more nuanced walking through with better proofs laid out.
This is not to say there weren’t interesting aspects. The discussion of the RSV was particularly interesting and could span its own book. However, most of what was in here didn’t really add to the recent scholarship on Hoover that is out there, particularly Beverly Gage’s biography G-Man.
I am particularly critical of Darby’s narration for the audiobook. It was a stilted reading that made it seem like the reader was bored. The emphasis on certain words also unfortunately highlighted Martin’s lack of good prose, which made this harder to get through.
Ultimately I believe the points Martin is trying to make are important and should be listened to. I also think that this book, had it been better written, would have made it easier to hear those thoughts. The work present here could have spanned a series of books, including the story behind it shared in the Introduction and Prologue. If Martin had taken that approach, or decides to do so in the future, then I believe there is a lot more we can learn that would benefit the country and all Christians, in particular, who reside here.
This book was a bit of a disappointment. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s stuck between the edge of being an essay and a topical non-fiction piece, and it fails to do well as either.
Martin also has a lot of different topics he wishes to cover here, from Hoover’s relationship with the evangelical side of Christianity, to Hoover’s racist ideology, to the topics of religion and white nationalism, to how Hoover’s influence on the FBI impacts the United States and American Christianity today. The last topic in particular isn’t given enough space in this book, and it needs a more nuanced walking through with better proofs laid out.
This is not to say there weren’t interesting aspects. The discussion of the RSV was particularly interesting and could span its own book. However, most of what was in here didn’t really add to the recent scholarship on Hoover that is out there, particularly Beverly Gage’s biography G-Man.
I am particularly critical of Darby’s narration for the audiobook. It was a stilted reading that made it seem like the reader was bored. The emphasis on certain words also unfortunately highlighted Martin’s lack of good prose, which made this harder to get through.
Ultimately I believe the points Martin is trying to make are important and should be listened to. I also think that this book, had it been better written, would have made it easier to hear those thoughts. The work present here could have spanned a series of books, including the story behind it shared in the Introduction and Prologue. If Martin had taken that approach, or decides to do so in the future, then I believe there is a lot more we can learn that would benefit the country and all Christians, in particular, who reside here.
February 6, 2024
I had a bit of a complicated reaction to this. The good stuff, first.
The strongest aspect of this book, by far, is the research. It's an amazing example of archival research at its most-rigorous and best. What Martin was able to recover and write about is quite remarkable, and at times, deeply troubling. He goes to great pains to recreate the efforts Hoover went through to shape the FBI according to his own, quasi-religious-nationalistic values, particularly in his strident anti-Communism. There are examples after examples of obscure statements and letters that shed light on the central thesis of Martin's book, and it's remarkable that he was able to dig this stuff up. He clearly went through an amazing amount of work to put the project together.
On the other hand, the writing style is quite repetitive at times, and a bit imbalanced in terms of what he focuses on versus what could have used a bit more development. But more so than that, my struggle while reading this was continually stumbling over what felt like sweeping, audacious claims about "white evangelicalism," the political agenda of white Christians, or extremely broad claims about racial attitudes and social agendas of various leaders that may or may not have been true (Hoover was pretty clearly a very-racially-biased person, to put it mildly) but just felt unsubstantiated. It's a bit disorienting, because the research is the strength of the book otherwise, and it felt like some of these bold claims could have been edited out and make the book a bit more convincing.
Props to Martin for his amazing research, and this is still worth a read for those who want to work through some dense and repetitive writing, and filter out some overly-confident statements, about a very specific aspect of American religious history.
The strongest aspect of this book, by far, is the research. It's an amazing example of archival research at its most-rigorous and best. What Martin was able to recover and write about is quite remarkable, and at times, deeply troubling. He goes to great pains to recreate the efforts Hoover went through to shape the FBI according to his own, quasi-religious-nationalistic values, particularly in his strident anti-Communism. There are examples after examples of obscure statements and letters that shed light on the central thesis of Martin's book, and it's remarkable that he was able to dig this stuff up. He clearly went through an amazing amount of work to put the project together.
On the other hand, the writing style is quite repetitive at times, and a bit imbalanced in terms of what he focuses on versus what could have used a bit more development. But more so than that, my struggle while reading this was continually stumbling over what felt like sweeping, audacious claims about "white evangelicalism," the political agenda of white Christians, or extremely broad claims about racial attitudes and social agendas of various leaders that may or may not have been true (Hoover was pretty clearly a very-racially-biased person, to put it mildly) but just felt unsubstantiated. It's a bit disorienting, because the research is the strength of the book otherwise, and it felt like some of these bold claims could have been edited out and make the book a bit more convincing.
Props to Martin for his amazing research, and this is still worth a read for those who want to work through some dense and repetitive writing, and filter out some overly-confident statements, about a very specific aspect of American religious history.
January 22, 2025
I think this book needed an editor with a much heavier hand, but ultimately, the last portion of the book saved it.
This book is roughly:
20% about Hoover’s upbringing and the early years of the FBI,
10% about Christian evangelicals in general (and Jerry Falwell’s Christianity Today magazine,
50%—hours and hours—of specific letters that Hoover received or articles he wrote in Christianity Today.
Then the last 20% is about Hoover’s obsession with MLK and the harassment and bad stuff he put MLK through
I was reading this specifically to learn more about what Hoover/FBI did to King, so they really tested my endurance to get the whole way to that part. I thought that part was excellent and I thought the book’s conclusion was excellent — hence the 5 stars. However, I felt like the middle portion was hours and hours too long. I feel like the point of data is to summarize findings (like “Hoover received over X hundred letters asking for his guidance on moral issues,” etc. Instead, this author chose to describe what-felt-like-every letter he came across, rather than summarize anything. It made the book a painful read and many hours more than it needed to be, or than it merits. In addition, the narrator was pretty rough for this, so it was akin to hearing someone read an encyclopedia.
One added bonus to this was that I learned tons more about Christianity Today magazine — I really had no idea of the role it has played nationally. And of course I learned a lot the general white Christian evangelical movement. (I haven’t read too many books about it before.)
This book is roughly:
20% about Hoover’s upbringing and the early years of the FBI,
10% about Christian evangelicals in general (and Jerry Falwell’s Christianity Today magazine,
50%—hours and hours—of specific letters that Hoover received or articles he wrote in Christianity Today.
Then the last 20% is about Hoover’s obsession with MLK and the harassment and bad stuff he put MLK through
I was reading this specifically to learn more about what Hoover/FBI did to King, so they really tested my endurance to get the whole way to that part. I thought that part was excellent and I thought the book’s conclusion was excellent — hence the 5 stars. However, I felt like the middle portion was hours and hours too long. I feel like the point of data is to summarize findings (like “Hoover received over X hundred letters asking for his guidance on moral issues,” etc. Instead, this author chose to describe what-felt-like-every letter he came across, rather than summarize anything. It made the book a painful read and many hours more than it needed to be, or than it merits. In addition, the narrator was pretty rough for this, so it was akin to hearing someone read an encyclopedia.
One added bonus to this was that I learned tons more about Christianity Today magazine — I really had no idea of the role it has played nationally. And of course I learned a lot the general white Christian evangelical movement. (I haven’t read too many books about it before.)
July 23, 2025
dnf-70%. this author keeps making unsupported logical leaps that erodes objectivity.
The religious stuff, gold, however the racial stuff is muddled...
during the days of JEH's FBI: the country is slowly moving away from segregation--even the north; white nationalism is the USA norm. many people and institutions are reflections of that norm, including JEH's policies within the FBI; OK. however, the author cites few policies or quotes that are EXPLICITLY white nationalist in nature. yet the author inserts "white nationalist" this/that throughout the book, mostly based on "dog whistles" or circumstantial evidence (sometimes powerful but still indirect)... for example, the FBI excludes black agents from comms of church events (they're not excluded from the event if they learn about them) these events are held at churches with all white congregations, therefore, the church/event becomes a "white nationalist" promotion. it's not a bbq, it's a "white nationalist" bbq, lol, bc it's segregated.
the "what's water" fish joke: when swimming in segregationist/ racist/ bigoted water, the author seems to be screaming the water is too hot/cold per the FBI...
The religious stuff, gold, however the racial stuff is muddled...
during the days of JEH's FBI: the country is slowly moving away from segregation--even the north; white nationalism is the USA norm. many people and institutions are reflections of that norm, including JEH's policies within the FBI; OK. however, the author cites few policies or quotes that are EXPLICITLY white nationalist in nature. yet the author inserts "white nationalist" this/that throughout the book, mostly based on "dog whistles" or circumstantial evidence (sometimes powerful but still indirect)... for example, the FBI excludes black agents from comms of church events (they're not excluded from the event if they learn about them) these events are held at churches with all white congregations, therefore, the church/event becomes a "white nationalist" promotion. it's not a bbq, it's a "white nationalist" bbq, lol, bc it's segregated.
the "what's water" fish joke: when swimming in segregationist/ racist/ bigoted water, the author seems to be screaming the water is too hot/cold per the FBI...
April 13, 2024
Very academic book at times, but numbing to read how Hoover turned the FBI into a white-only, Christian-only organization, and actively collaborated with the Christian community of the time across denominations. Jesuits, other Catholics, mainline protestant, evangelical, all sought his advice and articles for their various magazines, retreats and forums. No black agents, no female agents, till forced to, and then lied and said his driver/garder was an agent. Black agents were identified by a different coding system and systemically left out of all "Christian" retreats, services, and gatherings. He was not exposed for his illegal surveillance of those he distrusted, till after his death. The last section on his hatred of MLK, and his work to undermine the Civil Rights Movement, is just one example, though a blatant one, of his disregard for the constitution. I grew up with the magazines who cherished his writings and viewpoints sitting in my family's home: Christianity Today, Eternity, Decision. My family, unbeknownst to them, was influenced by him, just like so many others.
September 1, 2025
Kind of long and super dense but very informative and pretty engaging. I flew through the first 20% and then took me almost a month to get through the rest of the first half but then I flew through the second half in one day because I was so into it and excited to keep listening. I wouldn't recommend the audio book quite honestly because the person was so robotic; sounded like AI or something which I wasn't into but the storyline more than made up for it. I think this is honestly such an important read this day and age because the legacy of this dude lives on and is now mainstreamed in both government and civilian thought. Though I wouldn't recommend listening to the audiobook I would recommend reading it
August 11, 2024
This book dispels the rumors and reveals the secret culture of the FBI under Hoover, and the legacy that remains in the FBI. The history of the FBI is one of supporting and promoting white Christian nationalism. To understand this movement, Hoover's FBI needs to be examined. What was most enlightening to me is the glaring conflation of communism and Christianity, and the consistent fear-mongering we see today about the sinfulness of a nation causing its demise. The FBI's history is a an exemplar of why we need organizations working on the separation of church and state and a constant reminder of how fragile our Constitution is.
August 29, 2025
The book is interesting and well researched. I had no idea that Hoover had ties to Billy Graham and Christianity Today and other links to White Evangelicalism. I can't really imagine having this type of thing happen today or even a generation ago.
That said the book is incredibly long with very little extra detail about Hoover and Evangelicals just more and more content showing the links and relationships.
You could read the subheading or the first 50 pages and get the entire book.
That said the book is incredibly long with very little extra detail about Hoover and Evangelicals just more and more content showing the links and relationships.
You could read the subheading or the first 50 pages and get the entire book.
January 10, 2025
The points of discussion in this book interesting and worth learning about. However, it seemed as though the author tried to fit too much into one book. With so many topics, his main argument somewhat got lost in the weeds of information.
I listened to the version on Audible. The narrator was a bit clunky and had odd pauses within the sentences.
I listened to the version on Audible. The narrator was a bit clunky and had odd pauses within the sentences.
February 4, 2025
Man does Christianity Today not come off well in this book-this really re-frames my already complicated understanding of Billy Graham as well. Just because they were not as violently racist as other fundamentalists of the era does not mean they were on the right side of history, at least certainly as much as they could have been.
May 10, 2023
It's unfortunate that this book tried so hard to appear evenly balanced but it is like buying meat at the butcher and noticing that there's a thumb on the scale. Yes Martin makes very good points about how Hoover tried his best to turn the nation towards white Christianity, but he also protected some of the worst occurrences that could have been embarrassing to certain Evangelicals. These were part of his "private" files that he collected on political and popular Americans.
What's missing from this book is any discussion of Hoover's sexuality, which is part of his motivation to keep his life 'private' but dig into anyone else's he wanted to. His multiple year relationship with Clyde Tolson, and the rumors of that relationship is never touched on. For a man who supposedly was a 'closet' born again Christian, you never saw his name related to a relationship with a woman.
This doesn't matter to me one way or another except for the hypocrisy of those around him who kept any proof from surfacing. Those who questioned whether he was, found themselves under assault by the right wing press and the protectors of American sensitivities.
Could have been a really great book.
What's missing from this book is any discussion of Hoover's sexuality, which is part of his motivation to keep his life 'private' but dig into anyone else's he wanted to. His multiple year relationship with Clyde Tolson, and the rumors of that relationship is never touched on. For a man who supposedly was a 'closet' born again Christian, you never saw his name related to a relationship with a woman.
This doesn't matter to me one way or another except for the hypocrisy of those around him who kept any proof from surfacing. Those who questioned whether he was, found themselves under assault by the right wing press and the protectors of American sensitivities.
Could have been a really great book.
June 28, 2023
I'd really recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of White Christian nationalism in our government. Hoover tied the FBI to a shocking amount of Christian nationalism and white supremacy in the 40+ years that he was director, and we have seen the results.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews