NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) — David Limbaugh, author of Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity, will be the featured speaker at the Excellence in Journalism awards banquet during the fourth annual Baptist Press National Journalism Student Conference Oct. 7-9 in Nashville, Tenn.

The brother of talk show host Rush Limbaugh, David Limbaugh is an expert in law and politics. Persecution, which spent five weeks atop The New York Times best-seller list last fall, documents more than 800 examples of discrimination against Christians in America.

The conference also will include special addresses by other noted journalists, including James Patterson of The Indianapolis Star, William Mattox of USA Today, Anacleto Rapping of The Los Angeles Times and Holly Thompson of WSMV-TV in Nashville.

The collegiate conference will include general sessions – with special music by Christian artist Jason Ingram – as well as breakout sessions addressing specific topics. Additionally, the awards banquet will be held to recognize the top schools and individual students who entered the 2004 Excellence in Journalism Competition.

The breakout sessions will include workshops on news and feature writing, broadcasting, graphic design, magazine feature writing, yearbook design, public relations and photography.

This year Baptist Press is adding a $1,000 scholarship for the winner of the annual President’s Award to be presented at the awards banquet. The scholarship and award will go to a candidate who has shown sustained excellence as a student journalist and who meets certain academic criteria. The deadline for entering the competition has been extended to Sept. 15.

The awards banquet will be held Saturday, Oct. 9, at the Sheraton Hotel in Nashville.

The conference registration form is available online at www.bpnews.net/pdf/registration2004.pdf. Additional information may be obtained by calling Baptist Press at (615) 782-8664.