BIO

Sam Stella is a second-year student majoring in political science and statistics from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His research interests center on electoral politics and voting behavior. He also competes on the FSU Quiz Bowl team, is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Student Union, and worked on a political campaign in the 2022 election cycle.

Evaluating the Denominations of Senders of Letters to the FBI About Communist Infiltration of Religion in the 1950s and 1960s

Abstract

This study, based on the FBI file number 100-403529 (Communism and Religion), which has been declassified, examines numerous letters sent to the FBI by private individuals & religious organizations regarding the possibility of Communist Party infiltration in American churches during the 1950s and 1960s. The focus of this study is on the Christian denomination of the letter writers. The study shows that a plurality of letters came from members of Methodist churches, even though Methodists were not the most common protestant denomination in the United States in the 1960. Additionally, the study also found that there were very few letters from Catholics or Catholic organizations in spite of Catholicism being the largest denomination in 1960, as well as relatively few letters from Baptists. The pattern observed in the data may be attributed to several factors such as political shift, internal migration, concerns over desegregation, attitudes towards religious leadership, and the actions of significant individuals.

Keywords: Religion, FBI, Communism, Protestantism, 1950s-1960s