Abstract
In this article, I depict the resiliency and resistance of two powerful American figures, J. Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther King. I understand the sources of their resistance and resiliency in terms of core social imaginaries of faith that they initially internalized and later adopted, altered, and used. These social imaginaries, I argue, provided the purposes, meanings, and values that motivated and sustained their resistance and resiliency vis-à-vis enemies. It is also proposed that although these men were opponents, their lives reveal the intersection of Christian and national social imaginaries of faith, even though expressed and understood in decidedly different ways. Lastly, I contend that Hoover and King represent two distinctive expressions of Christian-national social imaginaries of faith present in American political life.
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Notes
I would add here that social imaginaries identify who is a subject or, more accurately, a person—a unique, valued, inviolable, agentic subject. Social imaginaries can represent Others as less than persons, which leads to corresponding behaviors. These socially constructed Others can be enemies or people within one’s society who are marginalized, oppressed, and depersonalized (e.g., through racism, sexism, ageism, etc.). King’s autobiography chronicles his experience of and resistance toward racist social imaginaries that undergirded segregation, lynching, and other social practices of marginalization and oppression.
One feature of Hoover’s nationalistic social imaginary of faith is the belief in White supremacy, which was not uncommon for many White people during this time. Evidence of Hoover’s racism is found in his refusal and later reluctance to hire African American agents and in his racist comments made in reference to Martin Luther King (Gentry 1991, pp. 505, 568).
In one sense, the FBI itself functioned as a social imaginary in that it comprised an ethos of purpose, meanings, and values that shaped the emotions, motivations, and behaviors of Hoover and his agents. Indeed, Hoover was instrumental in creating an FBI mythos. This said, the FBI as an institution is imbued with nationalistic myths and so cannot be separated from the larger patriotic social imaginary of faith.
“The King Philosophy,” http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy, The King Center, accessed 7 June 2014.
Social imaginaries of faith are not mere abstract ideas that undergird one’s resilience. They are shared and when two or more people live out of these, they support each other’s resistance and resilience. For instance, Coretta’s own strength and resilience were key in supporting her husband so that he would have the strength to resist (see Frady 2002, pp. 66–68). King also obtained support and strength through close friends who worked with him on these protests (e.g., Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, and other close confidants).
It has long been well known that King had numerous affairs with women (Frady 2002; Harding 1996). King was, as Frady notes, well aware of his failings, which peppered his speeches, though in general terms. I refrain from a psychological interpretation of his affairs except to suggest that, given the constant threat of death, the affairs may have served as a release, an affirmation of life that both distracted him from death and served as a source of resilience.
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LaMothe, R. American Political Life: The Intersection of Nationalistic and Christian Social Imaginaries of Faith as Sources of Resistance and Resilience. Pastoral Psychol 64, 695–710 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-015-0663-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-015-0663-3