A former Southerner with strong credentials in the human and civil rights, religious liberty, and academic freedom fields takes issue, not with the depiction of Southern GOSPers as a passel of slackjawed cretins, but rather with the unfairness of making cracks about John Birch, whose reputation already suffers from having been shanghaied by ultraconservatives.
Birch, an American missionary and military officer was confronted while leading a team of Chinese, Korean, and Americans meeting up with other former Japanese prisoners at the end of WWII. When challenged to give up his revolver, Birch allegedly said, "You can take my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands," to which the ChiComs responded, "Okay."
The Beagle will let readers decide for themselves about the degree of unfairness, given that Birch started a group in his senior year at Mercer to weed out professors who taught heresy, such as evolution, and that he agreed to serve with the Office of Strategic Services only if he could be allowed to proselytize on the government's nickel.
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