John Birch (missionary): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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In the States, his parents left the Presbyterian Church, and Birch was raised and baptized in the Fundamental Baptist tradition. He lived in [[Vineland, New Jersey]] and [[Floyd County, Georgia|Crystal Springs]] and [[Macon, Georgia]].<ref name="John Birch 1980">{{cite book|title=The Secret File on John Birch|author=James & Marti Hefley|publisher=Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.|year=1980|isbn=0-8423-5862-5}}</ref> He graduated from Gore High School<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chattoogahistory.org/photo-archive/old-gore-high-school/|title=Chattooga County Historical Society, Old Gore High School}}</ref> at the head of his class in Chattooga County,

Georgia.<ref name="John Birch 1980"/> Afterwards, he enrolled at [[Georgia Baptist Convention|Georgia Baptist]]–affiliated [[Mercer University]] in Macon.<ref name="John Birch 1980"/> "He was always an angry young man, always a zealot", said a classmate many years later, saying that Birch "felt he was called to defend the faith, and he alone knew what it was."<ref name=WhoWasJB>{{cite magazine|title=Who Was John Birch?|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=April 14, 1961|url=https://time.com/vault/issue/1961-04-14/page/29/}}</ref> In his senior year, he joined a group of students who opposed liberal tendencies at the university. They brought charges of "[[heresy]]" against some professors, such as holding the [[theory of evolution]], and the university held a day-long hearing in the chapel. Defenders of the professors posted a sign on the door: "Do Not Enter: [[Spanish Inquisition]] in Progress". The charges were dismissed, but the incident made Birch and the group unpopular on campus, and he later regretted the "teacher episode." He graduated in 1939 [[Latin honors|magna cum laude]] with the highest grade point average in his class.{{sfnb|Lautz|2016|pp=55-60}}

==Missionary work==