A stained-glass window dedicated to the Christian virtues of FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover will be rechristened as a reminder of “past and current racial oppression” during a Capitol Hill worship service.
Officials at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church said they plan to remove Hoover’s name from the window during the Sept. 29 service of “repentance and repair” for his role in jailing Black civil rights leaders in the 1960s.
Hoover was born in a house on the present site of the church, which is located in the formerly segregated Seward Square neighborhood four blocks southeast of the U.S. Capitol. He attended the 1966 dedication of the window at the pastor’s invitation.
“The purpose of the Worship Service of Repentance and Repair is to acknowledge all of the harm that J. Edgar Hoover did through his abuses of power — harm not only to the rule of law, but also to civil rights activists, religious leaders, women’s organizations, labor organizations, and more,” the church council and Racial Justice Ministry Band said in a joint statement.
“But more importantly, the Service is also about acknowledging the more inclusive and socially just community that Capitol Hill United Methodist Church is today,” it said.
According to the statement, Hoover used the FBI “to undermine the Civil Rights Movement and tacitly promote a form of White Christian Nationalism.”
The service led by the Rev. Stephanie Vader, the church’s pastor, will leave the window in place but remove a plaque bearing Hoover’s name. That plaque reads: “Statesmanship Through Christian Virtues: J. Edgar Hoover Stained Glass Window.”
The window depicts a smiling Jesus with palms extended in a gesture of friendship.
An illustrated graphic on the church website notes the following symbols of the Christlike virtues of Hoover: a lily for purity, scales for justice, a compass for temperance, an oak leaf for fortitude, a cross for faith, an anchor for hope and a heart for love.
Church leaders said the new plaque’s inscription reflects their journey toward becoming an “anti-racist” community: “For the people of Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, who continually strive to practice the Christian virtues symbolized in this Window: Faith, Love, Justice, Courage, Temperance, Hope, and Wisdom.”
Hoover served under six presidents as the first director of the FBI from 1935 until he died in 1972. He became a controversial figure late in life and after his death as allegations emerged that he abused his power and violated FBI rules to jail political dissidents.
So far, reactions to the church’s decision to remove Hoover’s name from the window have fallen along ideological lines.
“Hoover was a terrorist to the Black community,” said Omekongo Dibinga, a professor of intercultural communications affiliated with the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. “No organization that claims to respect Black peoples or freedom for that matter should allow his face or likeness [on] anything.”
Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative Protestant advocacy group, called the upcoming Sunday service “posturing” by “a very progressive urban United Methodist church.”
“United Methodism is dying in Washington, D.C.,” said Mr. Tooley, a Methodist layman. “Perhaps instead of such social statements, a renewed focus on evangelism and winning persons to Christ would be a more positive development.”
The rededication comes as the United Methodist Church has moved to the left on issues of race and gender since his death, splitting its members politically.
The Protestant denomination lost about 7,600 conservative congregations, a quarter of its churches nationwide, as they voted to break away between 2019 and 2023. It claimed about 10 million members worldwide in 2022, including 5 million in the U.S.
In May, the denomination’s African churches voted to separate over LGBTQ-friendly policies, taking 12% of the church’s global membership with them.
These developments offer a stark contrast to the Methodist Church of the 1960s.
Methodist clergymen, FBI agents and political leaders joined Hoover for the window’s dedication during the construction of Capitol Hill United Methodist in 1966.
Bishop Wilbur E. Hammaker described himself during that service as an “unashamed hero worshipper” of Hoover and prayed for Hoover and the FBI to “continue to bring salvation to the nation.”
Church leaders said Methodist bishops will likewise attend the upcoming Sunday service removing Hoover’s name from the plaque.
They said the decision to rededicate the window as a “teaching tool” followed a two-year process of “intentional conversation and prayer.”
“We, therefore, will create a display in our building that will include the original Hoover dedication plaque and the story of our journey of repentance and repair,” the church said in a statement.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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