Leon Milton Birkhead (April 28, 1885 – December 1, 1954) was an American Unitarian minister who founded the Friends of Democracy (FOD) after a 1935 visit to Nazi Germany. It was a pro-democracy, anti-fascist, and interventionist propaganda and educational group. Historians generally regard Birkhead as one of the most energetic and effective anti-fascist investigators in America during World War II.
Born in Winfield, Missouri, Birkhead began work as a Methodist preacher in 1904 while attending McKendree College. He was fully ordained as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1911 and took head of a St. Louis church in 1913. An agnostic socialist, Birkhead was too radical for his congregation and he left his pulpit and Methodism in 1915. He was swiftly welcomed into the American Unitarian Association and in 1917 he took head of All Souls Unitarian Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Under his leadership, the church expanded and became increasingly and then wholly secular, becoming known as "The Liberal Center". Birkhead appreciated the ability to gain publicity and his heterodox liberal views frequently sparked local and nationwide controversy. A proponent of evolution, Birkhead joined the defense in the Scopes Monkey Trial where he began a decades-long friendship with H. L. Mencken. Birkhead was chief advisor to Sinclair Lewis when he wrote the anti-ministerial Elmer Gantry. Birkhead was the lead defender of the controversial novel. A religious humanist, Birkhead proposed, partly authored, and signed A Humanist Manifesto.
Birkhead visited Nazi Germany in 1935, uncovering Julius Streicher's plan to eradicate Jewry and stealing a list of American Nazi sympathizers. Birkhead dedicated the rest of his life to fighting fascism, and he would soon found the FOD, resign his pulpit, and move to New York. Birkhead targeted isolationists, antisemites, racists, and fascists. The FOD first targeted U.S. Senate candidate Gerald Burton Winrod, who blamed Birkhead after being defeated. It also bore some credit for Charles Coughlin being taken off air, and was one of the most outspoken, largest, and harshest critics of the America First Committee and its leaders. The FOD prospered during the war and many prominent individuals joined or endorsed it. Birkhead's perennial targets included the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and Gerald L. K. Smith. The FOD worked closely with Freedom House and the Writers' War Board, with Rex Stout becoming the FOD's president. The FOD's chief investigator, Arthur Derounian, authored Under Cover, a best-selling exposé of fascism. Birkhead was one of the most well-informed anti-fascists in the United States and he was consulted by many federal agencies. The FOD published educational material as well as large amounts of propaganda, which Birkhead called "the most effective weapon in modern times".
Birkhead's wife Agnes and their son Kenneth were both also active in left-wing politics. After the end of World War II, the FOD continued to focus on right-wing extremism and it expanded until 1947. The threat of fascism receded in the public imagination and was replaced with communism. During the Second Red Scare, the FOD attempted to gain anti-communist plaudits but Birkhead continued to believe that fascism was a greater threat. He opposed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator Joseph McCarthy. In 1947, hostile action from the U.S. Treasury Department destabilized the FOD's funding, Birkhead was defanged by a nearly-successful libel suit, and his old foe Smith testified that Birkhead was a communist before HUAC. The FOD eventually collapsed. Birkhead declined personally and became estranged from Agnes. He died destitute in a New York City hotel.
Early life Childhood Leon Milton Birkhead was born on April 28, 1885, near Winfield, Missouri, to Hiram Lincoln "Link" and Mattie () Birkhead. Birkhead was usually referred to with his initials, L. M., by those close to him. His father was originally affiliated with the Restoration Movement before becoming a Baptist and his mother was a Methodist, which Birkhead was as well. He was the oldest of seven children and became a minister because his mother, who had been raised by a dentist cousin, wanted her son to enter a respected profession, and Birkhead concluded that the ministry was even more respected than dentistry. His father had a 100-acre farm and the crops from the 1903 harvest were to pay for Birkhead's college tuition, but they were destroyed by flooding. He spent 1903 working for a St. Louis shoe company, saving enough to attend McKendree College in 1904.
Education At McKendree, a Methodist college in Lebanon, Illinois, Birkhead's time was split between his education and fieldwork as a preacher in Southern Illinois. In 1904, he was ordained to preach but not give communion or commence marriage. He described his revivals as belonging to the Holy Roller variety. He also organized a church in Granite City, Illinois, and served a church in Madison, Illinois. After studying geology, Birkhead began to doubt the story of creation. He graduated in 1910 with a Bachelor of Arts. He then attended the conservative Methodist Drew Theological Seminary in an attempt to make his views more orthodox. Repulsed by the rejection of modernism he saw, Birkhead recalled that he became agnostic. He then attended the more liberal Union Theological Seminary as well as Columbia University. Exposed to various liberal religious views, Birkhead said he began to think himself too liberal for Methodism, but he said that friends convinced him he would be better served as a liberalizing force inside the church than outside. He did not receive any more degrees, but was still often referred to as "Doctor". Birkhead was fully ordained as a Methodist minister in March 1911 and began working as an assistant pastor at a large church in New York City. The head minister of that church, Christian F. Reisner, frequently advertised it and Birkhead came to participate in the advertising, something he incorporated and became well known for in his later endeavors.
Missouri Methodist ministries
In 1912, he was assigned to St. Louis's Maple Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church as an assistant pastor. In 1913, he became senior pastor after his predecessor left for a church in Baltimore. Later in 1913, he became pastor at Wagoner Memorial Church, also in St. Louis. His sermons frequently dealt with the social and economic problems of the time. He also co-founded a debating society with Roger Nash Baldwin, who later co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an organization Birkhead was also active in.
Birkhead was more radical than most of the church's membership and, under his leadership, Sunday morning sermon attendance and donations suffered a significant decline, making church leaders unhappy. In 1915, Birkhead criticized the evangelist Billy Sunday, whom he called "more a freak than an evangelist". His opposition to Sunday was unpopular and sparked questioning on whether he could continue to serve. On March 10, 1915, Birkhead resigned from the Methodist Episcopal Church and his pulpit. Birkhead said that most of his flock were not ready for his ideas and he declared himself in disagreement with all of Methodism's 25 articles. He declared that real Christianity was "love to God and love to man". Birkhead rejected the existence of miracles, the resurrection, Moses's receiving of the Ten Commandments and authorship of the first two books of the Old Testament, and the existence of heaven and hell. Birkhead was a proponent of the Social Gospel.
Personal life Birkhead met Agnes Schiereck while doing mission work at the church she attended in downtown St. Louis. She was born in St. Louis on April 20, 1886, and had been working as a stenographer in 1907 when she passed the civil service exam, becoming a deputy collector of the Internal Revenue Service. She was the youngest person and first woman to serve as deputy collector at the St. Louis office. They married in September 1913 and she left her job, which was customary. Their only child, Kenneth, was born on November 15, 1914. Agnes left the Methodist church at the same time as Birkhead, saying it was after several years of thought and independent of her husband's decision.
Birkhead was an insomniac. He was also a frequent reader of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and would often read through the entirety of the night. Birkhead lamented that most ministers did not study books, saying that he had stopped visiting his congregants unless they were old, ill, or dying so he could study. Birkhead often incorporated recently published books or classics into his sermons. Throughout his life, Birkhead was also a frequent collector, mostly of small texts related to his church duties; later in life, he would collect newspaper clippings that interested him, usually going through about 30 newspapers each day. He was an amateur theater actor, often playing characters satirizing ministers and mostly acting in plays with strong messages about social issues.
Unitarianism Less than two week after resigning his pulpit, Birkhead was preaching to a Unitarian congregation, and he was admitted to the denomination by the end of March 1915. He said the purpose of the Unitarian church was "to affirm frequently that it is possible to be decent and honorable without accepting meaningless and outgrown traditions and beliefs."
First Unitarian Church Birkhead was invited to take head of the First Unitarian Church in Wichita, Kansas, arriving in July 1915. The church had been formed in 1903 and, at the time of his arrival, was no longer growing, averaging a Sunday attendance below 50. The church met in June and July, which was unusual for Unitarian churches that usually were not in session during the summer months. In his sermons, Birkhead frequently attacked the traditional Christian doctrine that he had repudiated in leaving Methodism, frequently praising "heretics". By the end of 1915, the church's membership had increased by 25%. Birkhead campaigned for the creation of a middle school, a retirement home, worker rights, road improvement, a farm dedicated to rehabilitating prisoners, and a housing commission to prevent the creation of slums. He debated the city's mayor, Orsemus Hills Bentley, opposing the mayor's plan to create a city manager position; Birkhead would fearmonger to Wichita's Black residents, noting that most city managers were racist Southerners. In November 1916, Birkhead presided over a campaign event at a public speaking forum in Wichita for Allen L. Benson, presidential nominee of the Socialist Party.
Birkhead advertised his church in newspapers to increase attendance, which was unusual, and also joined and led local advertiser groups. His unorthodox views were unpopular with Wichita's other clergymen. In January 1917, an arsonist attempted to burn down the church, but only damaged its front door. Birkhead attacked the Evangelist E. J. Bulgin when he visited Wichita, with Bulgin responding to the attacks by calling Birkhead "a Godless Preacher, wolf in sheep's clothing" to his audience of 7,300. The church's finances significantly improved under his tenure and it paid off all debt on its building and no longer required the support of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) to survive. In some of Birkhead's only handwritten records to survive, notes before a meeting with the church's board dated to 1917, he writes that his salary was less than that of other comparable ministers and insufficient, also saying that he lacked necessary amenities. In November 1917, Birkhead was invited to take head of All Souls Unitarian Church in Kansas City, Missouri, a much larger church in a much larger city that likely paid much better.
All Souls Unitarian Church