Barnabas File

Robert Parham died March 5.  I knew Robert for almost three decades.  When we were first introduced, he was a staff member with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, one of that denomination’s premiere organizations.  As Parham observed the shifting Baptist landscape, he left the CLC in 1991 to found the Baptist Center for Ethics, and independent voice for ethical concerns.  Both in personal conversations and observing Robert’s leadership over the past 25 years, I learned much about innovation and a positive response to the emerging opportunities in our culture.  When BCE was launched, the organization adopted the pattern set by the CLC--offering conferences, newsletters, and other printed resources that addressed moral and ethical issues.  Parham and his team saw that this strategy was not achieving the desired results.  BCE moved toward curriculum resources, first offering them in a printed form and then...