Jimmy Carter held the highest office in the land. But his faith made him a public servant
Analysis: Carter navigated the barbed wire of the politics of religion, Eric Garcia reports. In doing so, he ran his race and he kept his faith
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Before Vice President Kamala Harris, the last presidential candidate Jimmy Carter voted for, or President Joe Biden, the first senator who endorsed Carter’s bid for president in 1976, could pay tribute to the late president, House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke about his remembering the president being sworn in.
“I’m reminded of his admonition to live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon, and of his amazing personal reflection: ‘If I have one life and one chance, to make it count for something,’ We all agree that he certainly did,” Johnson said in his closing remarks under the Rotunda with Carter’s casket by his side.
On the surface, Carter and Johnson could not be more different. Johnson is a strident conservative and a steadfast supporter of President-elect Donald Trump.
Carter was an avowed Democrat. But Johnson’s tribute made a sort of sense given that he and Carter both were brought up in the Southern Baptist tradition.
Indeed, Carter was in many ways the first presidential candidate to bring evangelicals into the fold and Johnson himself served as a trustee of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The 39th president - who died on December 29 and was honored during a funeral at the National Cathedral on Thursday - was always known as a man of faith. A man of service. While he held the most powerful office in the world, Carter was known for his humble life, including serving as a simple Sunday School teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.
It was just a taste of how Carter’s faith colored the week of mourning America’s longest-living former president. Throughout the week and since his death, almost every tribute has mentioned his deep and abiding faith.
Johnson’s words echoed those of 1 Peter 3:15, which says “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”
Carter came to Washington as an actual outsider, in the shadow of Watergate, the Vietnam War and the Kennedy assassination, and he left the White House in the midst of rampant inflation and the Iran hostage crisis. That turned Carter’s presidency into shorthand for a failed presidency.
At the same time, his post-presidency was marked by his philanthropic work, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, namely his building homes for Habitat for Humanity and his efforts to eradicate Guinea worm. His lack of desire to earn wealth off of his presidency also stood in stark contrast to that of his successors.
And throughout the week, elected officials, even those of the opposing party, mentioned Scripture and hymns.
“Being with you today, I am reminded of the enduring words of a favorite hymn: May the works I have done speak for me,” Vice President Kamala Harris said during her tribute.
Carter’s send-off comes after he navigated the barbed wire that was the politics assocaited with Christianity throughout his life. During his presidential campaign, the church he attended refused to hold services rather than admit Black people. When he opposed it, Georgians boycotted his peanut business.
In 2009, he left the Southern Baptist Convention because of its views on gender.
When he ran for governor in 1970, he winked and nodded to segregationists only to say in his 1971 inaugural, “the time for racial discrimination is over.” That two-step might have been why he was able to secure the support of ardent segregationist George Wallace and Martin Luther King Sr in his 1976 race.
His prickliness made it difficult for him to negotiate with Congress, including members of his own party. He famously said about Ted Kennedy’s challenge to him for the Democratic nomination in 1980, “if Kennedy runs, I’ll whip his ass.”
Still, his life of service offered an example of how faith can inform people’s politics. Elizabeth Warren, who now holds Kennedy’s old Senate seat, was on the verge of tears as she exited Carter’s memorial.
Warren, a former Sunday school teacher, told The Independent that doing so taught her “that more than anything else, you have to be true the what you believe.”
“Jimmy Carter is an inspiration because he did his best to live his life with honesty and dignity and faith and we can’t ask for much more,” she said.
Senate Republican James Lankford of Oklahoma is a minister who told The Independent his faith taught him politics is about people.
“When you care about the person that's in front of you,” he told The Independent. “When you care about your family, when you care about what actually happens, you just think about things differently. So yeah, that's, that's, that's a biblical principle of both caring for your neighbor and loving your neighbor as yourself.”
Times have since changed, both for Carter and the church. Carter’s image as an evangelical does not mean that many will follow his example. White evangelicals overwhelmingly supported Trump. Where Carter eschewed wealth, Trump resides in his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Where Carter somewhat sheepishly admitted to Playboy magazine that he “looked on many women with lust” and therefore, “committed adultery in my heart many times,” despite never actually cheating on Rosalynn, his wife of 77 years, Trump has graced the cover of the magazine with scantily clad women. Where Carter could expound on the Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthians, Trump notably called the second epistle “Two Corinthians.”
Nonetheless, Carter’s farewell and the themes of his faith, can show that all are sinners. And it is the duty of believers to bend the arc as they run their race. When Carter was born, Georgia was a segregationist state.
Today, one of his home state’s Senate seats is occupied by a Black minister.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments