Spiritual Criminals - by Michelle M Nickerson (Paperback)

About the Book

"Who were the Camden 28, and how did they shake the political, religious, and moral foundations of American society? This passionate group of grassroots religious left-wingers resisted both their church and their government as they crusaded against the Vietnam War. Though they were arrested while indisputably raiding a draft board, a jury refused to convict them-making them made them an inspiration for today's moral reformers of institutions like prisons and the Catholic Church. Yet the group's dynamics also illuminate the power relations and racial and sexual inequalities that persist within resistance movements. This is a complex portrait of where resistance comes from, what it means, how it spreads-via doctrine, shared politics, or friendship-and how it sometimes leads to justice"--

Book Synopsis

A surprising look at the 28 Catholic radicals who raided a draft board in 1971--and got away with it.

When the FBI arrested twenty-eight people in connection to a break-in at a Camden, New Jersey, draft board in 1971, the Bureau celebrated. The case should have been an easy victory for the department--the perpetrators had been caught red-handed attempting to destroy conscription documents for draftees into the Vietnam War. But the results of the trial surprised everyone, and in the process shook the foundations of American law, politics, and religion.

In Spiritual Criminals, Michelle M. Nickerson shares a complex portrait of the Camden 28, a passionate group of grassroots religious progressives who resisted both their church and their government as they crusaded against the Vietnam War. Founded by priests, nuns, and devout lay Catholics, members of this coalition accepted the risks of felony convictions as the cost of challenging the nation's military-industrial complex and exposing the illegal counterintelligence operations of the FBI. By peeling away the layers of political history, theological traditions, and the Camden 28's personal stories, Nickerson reveals an often-unseen spiritual side of the anti-war movement. At the same time, she probes the fractures within the group, detailing important conflicts over ideology, race, sex, and gender that resonate in the church and on the political Left today.

Review Quotes

"A book like Spiritual Criminals has the potential to offer a significant contribution to U.S. Catholics' understanding of our history and provide inspiration for political activism today. Nickerson's question--Is there anything left of the Catholic left?--remains salient. And the endings to the Camden 28's stories can help provide an answer."-- "National Catholic Reporter"

"Nickerson's definitive account of this underappreciated episode in antiwar history also complicates the standard historiography of the Catholic antiwar movement. But beyond its scholarly merit, it's an urgent, timely book, particularly as millions of people across the country are grappling with how to reckon with--and resist--contemporary war-making. The teachings of the Catholic Resistance, we learn, are more relevant than ever."-- "Commonweal Magazine"

"An authoritative text about a Vietnam-era protest and its aftermath, Spiritual Criminals covers a momentous historical event and demonstrates the power of social justice movements."--Kristen Rabe "Foreword Reviews"

"Nickerson's detailed history, brimming with facts and concepts, reclaims a key chapter in the annals of American antiwar activism."-- "Booklist"

"Spiritual Criminals takes us into the lost but thrilling world of the Vietnam-era Catholic Left, where young people wrestled with great moral questions in dramatic and daring ways. The story of the Camden 28 is a political page-turner, wonderfully well told. It reminds us that the terms 'religious' and 'right' did not always go together. It also has much to teach today's antiwar activists, as both a model and a cautionary tale."--Beverly Gage, author of 'G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century'

"In Michelle Nickerson's often moving Spiritual Criminals, twenty-eight mostly lay Catholics confronted their Church and the US government to end the Vietnam War by destroying draft board records. Nickerson's story of faith, betrayal, theology, and a trial that shockingly acquitted the Camden 28 offers poignant testimony to the power of moral suasion in a compromised world--a deftly researched, powerfully written, deeply touching book." --Jon Butler, author of 'God in Gotham: The Miracle of Religion in Modern Manhattan'

"Spiritual Criminals beautifully illuminates not only one of the most contentious court cases of the Vietnam war era but the forgotten religious and political worlds beneath the trial. Radical priests, nuns, and Catholic laypeople emerge from these compelling pages as central to the anti-Vietnam war effort, and their successes and travails tell us much about the trajectory of 1960s era activism." --John McGreevy, University of Notre Dame

About the Author

Michelle M. Nickerson is professor of history at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of Mothers of Conservatism: Women and the Postwar Right and coeditor of Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Place, Space, and Region.