Robert Broome: Father of Baptist Peacemaker

At the annual BPFNA Summer Conference July 20- 25, where we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America - Bautistas por la Paz (BPFNA), we also celebrated the crucial contribution of Robert Broome to the fellowship’s very existence, and we mourned his passing only nine days earlier. Robert died of cancer on July 11, at age 66. On Thursday evening of the Summer Conference, we commemorated Robert’s contributions to our lives during a special evening worship service, which then became a memorial for several other early BPFNA members. Had it not been for Robert Broome, there might be no Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. I want to tell that story.

In 1978, Robert Parham, now Director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, was a student in my Christian peacemaking course at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. In that class, he wrote a proposed resolution on peacemaking and the nuclear arms race. With the help of David Matthews, a pastor in Virginia, he succeeded in getting the resolution passed by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) when it met that summer.

When the SBC urged repentance for not doing enough for peacemaking, and urged support for a treaty to halt the development of nuclear weapons, it made national news. After that, we organized The Southern Baptist Conference on Peacemaking and the Nuclear Arms Race, at Southern Seminary and Deer Park Baptist Church. The idea elicited a dismissive response from the SBC Christian Life Commission and its director, Foy Valentine. But 400 people came from 14 different states. It made news in all the state Baptist papers, the New York Times and other media.

It all could have ended right there.

But Robert Broome urged us to organize a newspaper so the movement would thrive, would not go back to sleep. Deer Park Baptist Church pastor Carman Sharp and I expressed skepticism. Who would subscribe to a peacemaking newspaper for Southern Baptists? But Robert Broome had vision, and he had persistence. Glenn Hinson agreed to be the editor, and others of us gave in to Robert’s vision.

We used money raised by the conference, compiled an initial mailing list of about 6,000 and published the first issue of Baptist Peacemaker in December 1980. Soon letters and donations began coming in, and Deer Park Baptist Church provided the newspaper an office. Robert Broome’s vision, Baptist Peacemaker, is now in its 29th successful year. Had there been no Robert Broome, there never would have been a Baptist Peacemaker.

So Southern Baptists now had a peace newspaper, but had no peacemaking organization. By contrast, American Baptists had an organization, a Baptist Peace Fellowship, but no newspaper. Someone got the idea that we could propose a marriage, producing an organization and a newspaper, South and North—the Baptist Peace Fellowship and Baptist Peacemaker.

Representatives of other Baptist denominations joined in. We met at Deer Park Baptist Church in 1984, decided to merge and here we are—the BPFNA - Bautistas por la Paz, encompassing the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Baptist Peacemaker, together and thriving. We are literally Robert’s baby.

Had Robert Broome not persisted in prodding us to begin the newspaper, we would not have had Baptist Peacemaker, we would not have had a group of leaders who could meet with the ABC Baptist Peace Fellowship, would not have had anything to merge and probably the BPFNA would not now exist.

But that’s not all. Robert next conceived the idea of publishing a series of small books, The Baptist Peacemakers International Spirituality Series. He himself initiated, edited and published them. Authors included Glenn Hinson, W.W. Finlator, John Johnson, Beyers Naude, G. McLeod Bryan, George Williamson, Jr., T. Canby Jones, Clyde Tilley, Ken Sehested and Robert Broome himself.

Jürgen Moltmann and I wrote number 13 in the series, Justice Creates Peace, which carries a photo of Robert Broome and Jürgen Moltmann together. Robert was justifiably proud of, and grateful for, that photo and that series. He was hoping the BPFNA would assume responsibility for the series and its distribution, and was disappointed that it did not.

Broome had become acquainted with the peacemaking efforts of the Society of Friends (Quakers) while working at a Quaker high school in Tennessee during the late 1970s. Pat Cole quotes him: “I was impressed by the quality of their networking on peace issues, and wanted to see Southern Baptist peacemakers across the nation develop a sense of unity and mutual support.” Born in Oakway, SC, Broome received a bachelor’s degree from William Carey College in Hattiesburg, MS. He earned his Master of Divinity at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and was a member of Deer Park Baptist Church, where Carman Sharp was pastor. He was ordained to the ministry by Antioch Baptist Church in Sevierville, TN, where a memorial service for him was held Saturday, July 18.

Both seminary studies and Carman Sharp’s faithful integrity deepened Robert’s theological guidance for peacemaking, and enabled him to develop the relationships that proved crucial in persuading others to help realize his vision. We can notice an intriguing connection between Robert Broome and William Carey, after whom his college was named. I am guessing Robert’s own sense of calling was influenced by Carey. William Carey was a shoemaker. Robert Broome was an upholsterer. Carey had a vision of obedience to Jesus’ Great Commission to go into the whole world, make disciples, baptize them and teach them to obey all of Jesus’ com- mands. Against much skepticism and Calvinistic op- position, he persisted and persuaded British Particular Baptists to form the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792, and then went himself as a missionary to India. He is known as the “father of modern missions.”

Broome had a vision of Baptists obeying Jesus’ commands, which clearly include peacemaking. Against much skepticism, he persisted and persuaded some of us to form the Baptist Peacemaker, and to publish The Baptist Peacemakers International Spirituality Series. He is clearly a father of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.

Robert Broome is survived by his wife of 44 years, Rosanne Broome, daughters Lisa Broome-Weathers, of Lexington, KY, and Heather Kabat of Asheville, NC; sons-in-law Matt and David; and his grandchildren, Even, Austin, Michaela and Amelia.

The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations of time or money be given to the peace organization of the donor’s choice.