The Federal Bureau of Investigation has had a long and tortuous relationship with religion over almost the entirety of its existence. As early as 1917, the Bureau began to target religious communities and groups it believed were hotbeds of anti-American politics. Whether these religious communities were pacifist groups that opposed American wars, or religious groups that advocated for white supremacy or direct conflict with the FBI, the Bureau has infiltrated and surveilled religious communities that run the gamut of American religious life.
The FBI and Religion recounts this fraught and fascinating history, focusing on key moments in the Bureau’s history. Starting from the beginnings of the FBI before World War I, moving through the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War, up to 9/11 and today, this book tackles questions essential to understanding not only the history of law enforcement and religion, but also the future of religious liberty in America.
Edited by:
Sylvester A. Johnson,
Steven Weitzman
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 28mm
Weight: 635g
ISBN: 9780520287273
ISBN 10: 0520287274
Pages: 376
Publication Date: 07 February 2017
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction. “True Faith and Allegiance”— Religion and the FBI Sylvester A. Johnson and Steven Weitzman 1. American Religion and the Rise of Internal Security: A Prologue Kathryn Gin Lum and Lerone A. Martin 2. “If God be for you, who can be against you?” Persecution and Vindication of the Church of God in Christ during World War I Theodore Kornweibel, Jr. 3. The FBI and the Moorish Science Temple of America, 1926–1960 Sylvester A. Johnson 4. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI, and the Religious Cold War Dianne Kirby 5. Apostles of Deceit: Ecumenism, Fundamentalism, Surveillance, and the Contested Loyalties of Protestant Clergy during the Cold War Michael J. McVicar 6. The FBI and the Catholic Church Regin Schmidt 7. Hoover’s Judeo-Christians: Jews, Religion, and Communism in the Cold War Sarah Imhoff 8. Policing Public Morality: Hoover’s FBI, Obscenity, and Homosexuality Douglas M. Charles 9. The FBI and the Nation of Islam Karl Evanzz 10. Dreams and Shadows: Martin Luther King Jr., the FBI, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Sylvester A. Johnson 11. A Vast Infiltration: Mormonism and the FBI Matthew Bowman 12. The FBI’s “Cult War” against the Branch Davidians Catherine Wessinger 13. The FBI and American Muslims after September Michael Barkun 14. Policing Kashmiri Brooklyn Junaid Rana 15. Allies against Armageddon? The FBI and the Academic Study of Religion Steven Weitzman Notes Index
Sylvester A. Johnson is Associate Professor of African American Studies and Religious Studies at Northwestern University. Steven P. Weitzman is the Abraham Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
Reviews for The FBI and Religion: Faith and National Security before and after 9/11
"""The story of the FBI and religion is not a series of isolated mishaps, argues a new book of essays edited by Steven Weitzman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Sylvester A. Johnson, a professor at Northwestern University. Over its 109 years of existence, these historians and their colleagues argue, the Bureau has shaped American religious history through targeted investigations and religiously tinged rhetoric about national security."" The Atlantic"
