Appreciating Jimmy Carter

The first bumper sticker I ever put on my car was a “Jimmy Carter for President” sticker. I was a senior in college, he was running against Gerald Ford, who had become President when Richard Nixon resigned. Those were the days before I decided I was a Democrat.

In fact, I had voted for Nixon in the previous election in 1972. It took me a little time to decide to support the peanut-farming governor from Georgia. Instinctively, I had doubts about a governor whose lieutenant governor was the avowed segregationist Lester Maddox. But there was something different about this guy with the “Pepsodent” smile. The more I listened to him, the more I came to appreciate a fundamental honesty, sincerity, and pragmatism that was severely lacking in other politicians. Even then, I felt that this was someone whom I could trust.

There are many people in America that consider themselves Christians (70% according to the Huffington Post). A relative few however, live the kind of life that justifies the title. Jimmy Carter has. I don’t know a lot of people that “do unto others, as they would have others do unto them”, EVERYDAY. I can’t imagine Jesus Christ insisting that every person in America should have unlimited access to any kind of gun they might desire, (like so many of his critics do). Somehow, I can picture a modern day Jesus negotiating peace among warring nations (like he does), building homes for those without housing all over the world (like he does), and advocating healthcare for everybody (like he does). I can literally see Jesus Christ teaching Sunday School in a little-bitty church in Georgia every Sunday morning (like he does). And, I can imagine people travelling from all over the world and sleeping in front of the church to attend one of those Sunday School sessions, just like they do in Plains, Georgia today.

On Thursday, August 20, 2015, President Jimmy Carter held a press conference in Atlanta, Georgia. He had recently undergone surgery to remove a tumor from his liver. It was determined to be cancerous, and the doctors informed him it had spread to his brain. During his press conference, he said that at first he thought he had only a few weeks left to live, but surprisingly, he felt at ease. Who among us could face such a diagnosis with such grace and good humor? The 90 year-old former President said “I have had a wonderful life…. I’m ready for anything and I’m looking forward to new adventure”. With his trademark smile, he would simply say, “It is in the hands of God, whom I worship”. I was inspired by his faith, and reminded of my own.

Some of today’s politicians like to make fun of President Carter and his presidency. Many of them spend a lot of time espousing their own Christianity. They don’t mention Carter was the first evangelical Christian elected President. They don’t mention his extensive knowledge of nuclear physics or his service as a senior officer on America’s second nuclear submarine (most of his critics never served at all). They never talk about the 28 books he has written, the peace treaty he brokered between Egypt and Israel, or his Nobel Peace Prize. Nobody ever mentions the promise he made (and kept) to the American people. He told us he would never lie to us, and after Richard Nixon, that was a hell of a promise. Those that like to denigrate President Carter, would prefer to deify Ronald Reagan.

In our modern world, it is difficult to imagine an honest, God-fearing, truth-telling, kind, compassionate, incorruptible, humble person running for and winning the Presidency. But that’s what Jimmy Carter was, and that’s what he did.

The consensus among historians when it comes to the Carter presidency is that it was average at best when compared to other administrations. However his post-presidential years have been universally praised. He established the Carter Center in 1982 with the goal of advancing human rights. Since that time he has travelled all over the world brokering peace agreements between nations, serving as an observer to ensure free and fair elections, and working to eradicate infectious diseases in developing nations. He has also become synonymous with “Habitat for Humanity”, physically building homes for the less fortunate in the United States as well as other nations.

When he told the world that he had brain cancer, and mentioned that he had “a wonderful life”, it was an understatement. I was so impressed by his total lack of self-pity. I was so encouraged by his light-heartedness. What remarkable faith must be required to face one’s impending demise in such a way. What a testament to one’s own faith in the way a life has been lived. As I sat and watched him laugh and joke with the reporters, yet expressing in intimate detail the seriousness of the situation, I was inspired to be able to live my own life that way, to be able to face my own death in the same way.

When I put that bumper sticker on my car in 1976, the green and white sticker promoting “Jimmy Carter for President”, I did not know what kind of man he really was. There was just something about him, something that made me believe that he would do the right thing. I have never put another bumper sticker on a car.

I probably never will.