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

In this program, Lerone Martin, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, discusses his recent book, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover, which 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. His research draws on thousands of newly declassified FBI documents, including a civil lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for FBI files on Billy Graham. Martin takes readers from the pulpits and pews of small-town America to the Oval Office, and from the grassroots to denominational boardrooms. In this talk, Martin transforms how we understand the FBI, white evangelicalism, and our nation’s entangled history of religion and politics. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 39809]