DURHAM, N.C. (ABP) — On a day Americans now associate with terrorism — Sept. 11 — leaders of an independent Baptist news service gathered to celebrate freedom of the press and a gift they hope will help further such freedom among Baptists.
Coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States, Associated Baptist Press held a banquet in Durham, N.C., to mark the establishment of the R. Gene Puckett Endowed Internship. Puckett retired in 1998 after 16 years as editor of North Carolina Baptists' Biblical Recorder newspaper. He also served as the editor of state Baptist papers in Maryland and Ohio, as managing editor of the state Baptist paper in Kentucky, and as a founding member of ABP's board of directors.
Randall Lolley, who retired in 1988 as president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary when conservative trustees starting moving the school decidedly to the right, spoke. He said that while most everyone knows that Sept. 11 was the fifth anniversary of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., not as many know that it was also the 16th anniversary of the first ABP board meeting.
Lolley, noting that ABP releases hundreds of stories every year, said that prior to his speech he asked ABP Executive Editor Greg Warner to give him a list of the top stories for each year the news service has existed.
“It's a smorgasbord of Baptists at their best and Baptists at their worst,” he said.
Lolley said Sept. 11 is a good time to think about challenges to Thomas Jefferson's concept of the wall of separation between church and state, historically a cause Baptists have championed. He called ABP a “healthy sentinel, standing on Jefferson's wall saying, 'Over our dead body'” will that wall be breached.
Lolley held up Puckett as an example of journalistic integrity, saying he was a “truth-teller” during times of “truth-twisting” and “truth-slaying.” He praised Puckett and his wife, Robbie.
He also mentioned the circumstances that led to ABP's formation — which took place in 1990 after fundamentalists on the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee fired the two editors of Baptist Press. Lolley described the “tension and electricity” in a room where Baptist editors gathered to discuss how to respond to the situation.
Puckett, speaking after Lolley, described ABP's success by borrowing a phrase he heard at an event honoring another Baptist editor who was fired.
“This is a night that should have never been, but had to be,” he said.
Ed and Laura Anne Vick of Raleigh, N.C., pledged the lead gift of $125,000 for the Puckett Endowed Internship. Ed Vick, a retired engineering firm executive, is a member and immediate past chairman of ABP's board of directors. Both Vicks are long-time members of Raleigh's First Baptist Church and prominent leaders in moderate Baptist life.
The overall fundraising goal for the Puckett endowment is $250,000. Long-range plans for the endowment include funding summer, semester and year-long internships for aspiring Baptist journalists.
For the past decade, ABP has hired one or more summer interns, mostly from Baptist colleges. The students report full time, working in ABP offices in Jacksonville, Fla.; and Washington, D.C. The interns also work with partner publications around the country.
More than 100 people attended the banquet, which was held in conjunction with ABP's semi-annual board meeting. In the meeting, the directors heard an update on the news agency's new strategic partnership with the Texas Baptist Standard newspaper, and elected a slate of officers for the 2006-2007 year.
Dan Lattimore, vice provost at the University of Memphis and a member of Second Baptist Church there, succeeded Vick as chairman. Jimmy Nickell, a retired pharmaceutical company executive and member of Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., was elected vice-chairman. He succeeds retiring board member Carol Craighead of Jefferson City, Mo.
Board members also re-elected Dan Hobbs and Bob Stephenson as secretary and treasurer, respectively. Both are members of NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla.
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