Episode 4: Spies in the Pews

Sanctuary: On the Border Between Church and State

Spies in the pews? Criminal informants at Bible study? By the mid 1980s, sanctuary organizers were in the federal government’s crosshairs. The movement was growing, and its publicity-friendly protests were embarrassing the Reagan administration as it ramped up its military intervention in Central America. Facing pressure from a coalition of religious and political critics of the movement, the Department of Justice moved forward with a plan to covertly infiltrate sanctuary churches and put the squeeze on sanctuary’s most important organizers. In this episode, Barba and González examine the joint INS-FBI operation to infiltrate and dismantle the movement, the subsequent arrests of sanctuary leadership, and the 1985 Sanctuary Trial that threatened to silence a movement that was quickly becoming the most potent critic of the Reagan administration’s refugee and foreign policies.

Transcripts and Course Packs for Educators: https://linktr.ee/irmceorg

Additional Resources:

• ABC’s Nightline, Sanctuary Cities (ca. 1985)
• Freeman Reports - Stacy Merkt
• Sisters of the Presentation Teleconference: Sanctuary, provided by California Revealed
• The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, Episode on Sanctuary (1985)

Creators

Dr. Lloyd Daniel Barba is an Assistant Professor of Religion and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at Amherst College. He is the author of the award-winning book Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California (Oxford University Press) and editor of Latin American and US Latino Religions in North America (Bloomsbury). His current research on the Sanctuary Movement includes A Refuge of Resistance: A History of the US Sanctuary Movement (under contract with Oxford University Press) and a volume edited with co-host Sergio González, Sacred Refuge: New Histories of the Sanctuary Movement (under contract with New York University Press).

Dr. Sergio M. González is Assistant Professor of History at Marquette University. He is the author of Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (University of Illinois Press) and Mexicans in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press) and the co-editor of Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (New York University Press) with Felipe Hinojosa and Maggie Elmore. He is a co-founder and former organizer for the Dane Sanctuary Coalition and is currently completing a co-edited volume with co-host Lloyd Barba, Sacred Refuge: New Histories of the US Sanctuary Movement (under contract with New York University Press).

Funding for this series has been generously provided by the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support was provided by the American Academy of Religion and Amherst College.

Executive Producer: Dr. Bradley Onishi (@bradleyonishi)

Audio Engineer: Scott Okamoto (@rsokamoto)

Production Assistance: Kari Onishi