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When Jimmy Carter started attending First Baptist Church of Washington after becoming president, I found it a unique opportunity to better understand his faith. He was teaching Sunday school as he had done for years in his native Plains, Georgia, and I joined him.
Carter was an excellent teacher. He knew the Scriptures well and on one occasion asked me to teach a class, which was an experience I will never forget.
After the service, we went downstairs for coffee. There was a basket on the table where people could pay 25 cents for a drink. Carter reached into his pocket and found no money. He asked the wife, Rosalynn, if she had brought change. She didn’t have any. I said, “How far we’ve given up when the president of the united states can’t pay for the coffee?” I gave him a quarter and he laughed.
FAITH IS A POWERFUL FORCE IN JIMMY CARTER’S LIFE, SAYS HOSTS: ‘A SERVANT’S HEART’
Years later, after he left the presidency we met at a ceremony and I reminded him of that time in the basement of the church. He reached into his pocket and this time had a quarter which he handed to me and said, “we’re even.” I kept that quarter on my desk for years, unable to prove he gave it to me, but we both knew.
President Jimmy Carter’s faith was a big part of his life. FILE: Carter addresses town meeting.
When Carter announced during the 1976 presidential campaign that he was a born-again Christian, most of the media was confused. NBC News’ John Chancellor reported that he had looked at the appointment and that it was “nothing new.” If he had read the Bible that Carter read, he would have known that. Carter’s announcement and faithful church attendance attracted many new evangelical voters who helped him defeat Gerald Ford in the November election.
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By 1980, most of those voters had abandoned him in favor of Ronald Reagan, not because they necessarily doubted Carter’s declaration of his faith, but because they disagreed with his application of that faith. Carter made Sarah Weddington part of his administration. Weddington was the attorney who championed the case of Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court, which resulted in the overturning of all state election laws that restricted the process. Carter also hosted the “White House Conference on Families,” which included same-sex couples, anathema to most conservative Christians.
No one should question the sincerity of another person’s faith, but its application is fair game for analysis. Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy says that Carter’s faith was more in line with liberal Protestantism: “Although he professed admiration for the Christian realist Reinhold Niebuhr, Carter’s accommodation of foreign adversaries, pseudo-pacifism, undermining of allies, and endless faith in personal diplomacy are all more akin to the utopian aspirations of the religious left.It is fitting that Carter’s controversial ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, who he dismissed for an untimely meeting with PLO chief Yasir Arafat, later served as president of the National Council of Churches, a theologically and politically liberal organization.
President Jimmy Carter lays a wreath at the grave of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of former President Theodore Roosevelt, in Normandy, France, with his wife Rosalynn and French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing looking on, January 6, 1978. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
In 1979, at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen began his remarks this way: “Fellow sinners.” Turning to Carter, he added, “and that includes you, Mr. President.” Carter laughed along with the audience.
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Carter’s faithfulness in attending church inspired many who had given up the practice to return to Sunday worship. He was a man of good character, kindness and other qualities that the Holy Scriptures call “fruits of the spirit”. Whether you agree with his application or not (and his focus on human rights while president and helping build houses for the poor after leaving office were in line with Jesus’ commands), his faith was genuine.
He also paid his debts. The quarter he gave me proves it.
