White Christian Nationalism and the FBI

Brad speaks with Dr. Lerone Martin, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University and Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute at Stanford. They discuss his new book - The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover.

"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."

Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691175119/the-gospel-of-j-edgar-hoover

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