The Eternal Ghost of J. Edgar Hoover

Over 25 years ago, I attended the conference of Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) at the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. The MFSA was known as quite liberal and dedicated to what we would call today “Social Justice” issues. It was a well-meaning group of people with good intentions.

I had been in D.C. for a short time and was the Director of Chapters and Faith Groups for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I went to the conference mainly to see old friends from the California-Pacific Conference of United Methodists. The workshops were what you would expect from such a group.

At one point I was standing at the back of the church and noticed a beautiful stained glass window with the figure of Jesus clothed in a pink robe. It was impressive. Glancing down I saw a small “commemoration” plaque for the window. It said “Dedicated by Friends in Memory of J. Edgar Hoover,” the notorious and specious Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for over thirty-seven years.

I was briefly amused by the irony that a group of liberal, decidedly anti-war and anti-capitalist people of faith, were gathered under the watchful eye of a stained glass Jesus that was dedicated by the likely gay friends of one of the most notorious anti-constitutional law enforcement villains of the 20th Century. The very man who probably had files created on at least half of the people in the room.

Not that I had much to gloat about, since I was there in my official capacity representing Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an organization with plenty of history as being originally formed during the anti-Catholic fervor of the late 1940’s as “Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State (POAU).”

Later in my life I also learned that it was a cousin of mine, Attorney Lola Boswell, that pursued a failed Supreme Court case to keep John F. Kennedy from running for or becoming, President of the United States, because he was Catholic.

But back to J. Edgar and the era of anti-Catholic fervor. Yesterday, the news broke that the Richmond, Virginia field office of the FBI had circulated an internal document labeled "Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities."

Reports say that information coming from the Southern Poverty Law Center contributed to the memo. Curiously, the Southern Poverty Law Center was specifically set up to fight the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The KKK’s history includes not just violence and racism against people of color, particularly blacks, but also a rich past of hatred and violence against Catholics. So the very organization that once fought the KKK has determined that religious Catholics are now an extremist threat. And they have enlisted the willing assistance of the FBI. J. Edgar’s pink clad Jesus window must be quite proud.

What I want to know is can anyone further define the new “mitigation opportunities?”

Of course the national office denied the memo saying it didn’t meet its “standards.” Which standards I wonder? The “standards” that had them assessing parents at school board meetings as terrorists? Or could the “standards” be the Steel Dossier as the basis for accusing President Trump of Russian collusion? Or would it be standing up the notorious Crossfire Hurricane investigation? Or maybe it’s the burying of the Hunter Biden laptop story and intimidating Twitter employees into removing any references to it on their platform?

While Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI is certainly better looking than J. Edgar Hoover, it seems there is something in that Pennsylvania Ave. headquarters that keeps the ghost of J. Edgar alive and well. Maybe some serious mitigation needs to be an internal sweep of whatever malevolent spirit lives inside its walls.