Evil Deeds in High Places: Christian America's Moral Struggle with Watergate by David E. Settje

Abstract

Reviewed by: Evil Deeds in High Places: Christian America's Moral Struggle with Watergate by David E. Settje Robert Benne Evil Deeds in High Places: Christian America's Moral Struggle with Watergate. By David E. Settje. New York: New York University Press, 2020. 275 pp. As a rule, Lutherans' political presence in American life has been neglected by scholars of religion and politics. Lutheran political involvements are not as well-known as those of the mainline denominations nor as effective as the Southern Baptists or United Methodists. Lutherans have not played as prominent a political role in American life as Roman Catholics and they have not spawned politically powerful voluntary associations—Moral Majority, Christian Coalition—as have fundamentalists and evangelicals. Yet, they have been involved far beyond the attention they have been given by scholars. This book by David Settje, Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Concordia University Chicago, corrects that lack of attention. Here he adds to his considerable prior efforts to plumb the political involvements of American Lutherans in the great issues of the day. Two books precede this current effort: Lutherans and the Longest War: Adrift on a Sea of Doubt about the Cold and Vietnam Wars, 1961–75 (Lexington, 2006) and Faith and War: How Christians Debated the Cold and Vietnam Wars (New York University Press, 2011). This book focuses on the Watergate scandals that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August of 1974. As the "evil deeds in high places" and the dishonesty that surrounded them shook the confidence of the country, Settje argues that the churches played an increasingly important role in political life in America. The crisis especially provided an occasion for conservative religion to provide a stronger voice in public life. That is where at least some Lutherans (Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod) come into play in the book. Other Lutherans (Lutheran Church in America) trained their influence on the liberal side. But all Christian traditions exercised new and important roles in both moral judgment and renewal in America. So, while Settje gives due attention to Lutheran voices, he also covers other major traditions, as well as the journals that represented those traditions. [End Page 241] The main part of the book provides an exhaustive account of those religious bodies' grappling with the many facets of the Watergate crisis. It is highly detailed and thorough. The notes and bibliography together are forty pages long. Recounting that upheaval brings back many memories of that era and its primary actors to those who lived through it. To those who did not it provides excellent historical instruction. While for the most part, Settje's work is fair-minded, it is clear that he favors liberal Protestant political incursions. He tends to argue that evangelicals have violated their emphasis on piety in their affection for Nixon and later Trump. He ends the book by arguing that Christians "must advocate for the moral and ethical leadership that will protect democracy. But this requires, within the Christian comfort of mixing religion and politics, they put morality first and politics a distant second." (216) This obviously is a criticism of those who thought that Nixon's—as well as Trump's—political agendas were important enough to support in spite of their personal foibles. The choice between a politician's character and his or her agenda is not as neat as Settje suggests. Liberal support for Clinton demonstrates that ambiguity on the other side of the political spectrum. Settje also makes the claim that the Watergate imbroglio was the doorway to much more religious involvement in politics, whereas it seems to me that the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war provided an earlier occasion for heavy religious involvement. Also, the Supreme Court's decision in Roe vs. Wade was a huge stimulation for religious involvement in politics that was just as strong as Watergate and far more long-lasting. Nevertheless, this book is a welcome examination of a watershed moment in American politics as well as American religions' political role in it. [End Page 242] Robert Benne Institute of Lutheran Theology Brookings, South Dakota Copyright © 2022 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran...