Like many, I’ve followed the story of the tornado-spawned tragedy in Oklahoma. The images called up memories of when an EF-4 tornado swept through Murfreesboro, Tenn., where I served as a pastor at the time. A young mother and her…
Son of Amite County, child of God
By Merrill Hawkins I preached my first sermon in 1980 at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Amite County, Miss. Walter Stewart, a kind and gentle man, always with several days of beard growth and always at Sunday-morning church, told me…
‘Bootleg preacher’ Will Campbell dies
By Bob Allen Will Campbell, an author, activist and iconoclastic Baptist minister who described himself as a “bootleg preacher,” died June 3 from complications following a stroke suffered in 2011. He was 88. The Mississippi native was one of the…
There is life after the storm
In 1994 I was serving at the First Baptist Church of Williams near Jacksonville, Ala. when a tornado touched down on Palm Sunday near Ragland and cut a trail to Rome, Ga., demolishing hundreds of homes, destroying five church campuses,…
Gene Puckett, my father, and the best member of our family!
In 1978, Gene Puckett was the major speaker at the retirement dinner for my father, G. W. Bullard, as executive director-treasurer of the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania-South Jersey. He and dad had gotten to know one another in 1966 when…
Longtime editor R.G. Puckett dies
By Bob Allen Career journalist and champion for a free Baptist press R.G. “Gene” Puckett died May 12, months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Puckett, 80, worked as a Baptist journalist longer than any person in the 20th century….
A tribute to H. Leon McBeth
By Charles Deweese Dr. H. Leon McBeth died this week in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to his retirement, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1962 to 2003. This professor of Baptist history made an indelible mark on tens…
Baptist historian Leon McBeth dies
By Bob Allen H. Leon McBeth, a Baptist historian and scholar who authored nine books, died April 29 at age 81. McBeth, retired chair of the history department at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, received numerous awards for his contributions to…
Former Baptist editor dies
By Bob Allen Theo Sommerkamp, 84, a longtime Baptist journalist known to friends for his strong love for railroad trains, died April 19. Sommerkamp, of Columbus, Ohio, met his wife of 60 years, Jean, while attending Oklahoma Baptist University. They…