Serving Caesar and serving God has never been straightforward, despite instances when their purposes seemed to overlap. We might wish to view missionaries and other religious leaders as set apart from, or above, earth’s human travails, but for most of human history religious leaders and clergy have served alongside troops in war, if not instigated those wars outright. Collecting intelligence, or spying, however, gives us pause. We usually have a different and uncomfortable feeling about mixing the roles of godliness and espionage, which is often a by-word for deception, a sin. Sutton explores the seeming double lives of four Christians as they navigated their faith and armed pursuit of their country’s national interest during World War II.
Although the history and wartime exploits of the Office of Strategic Services is well-trodden ground, the focus on missionary contributions is new. It stands to reason that William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan and...