James Earl Carter, Jr. (1924-2024)

Former President Jimmy Carter, 100, has died:

The 39th president’s sole term in office was marred by a listless economy and stubborn inflation, squabbles within his party, gridlock in Congress and the seizure of American hostages in Iran. Considered a long-shot Democratic candidate when he announced his bid, Carter would broker a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and set in motion other changes that would dominate global politics in subsequent years.

Many of the achievements for which he was recognized came after he left office in January 1981. He was the most active former president in modern U.S. history, gaining renown for work over four decades monitoring elections around the world, fighting neglected diseases, working to raise living standards for the poor and advocating for human rights. He did much of this work through the Carter Center, the humanitarian nonprofit he founded with his wife, Rosalynn Carter, in 1982.

“Jimmy Carter will probably not go down in American history as the most effective president. But he is certainly the best ex-president the country ever had,” said Gunnar Berge of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in his 2002 speech presenting Carter with the peace prize.

Because of the Iran hostage crisis and moribund economy during his term, Jimmy Carter's Presidency is poorly regarded. But there were some positives:

But he had some notable successes in foreign affairs, including the Camp David Accords. Signed with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, they reshaped the Middle East by bringing a lasting peace to two hostile nations. And domestically, the president was able to push deregulation of airlines, railroads and other industries. He signed a law establishing the Energy Department to regulate existing sources of energy and fund research into new sources and other technologies.

If there's one thing that I remember about President Carter, it's his outspoken Christianity. He was mocked by the Eastern cognoscenti for the Playboy "lust in my heart" interview:

"I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times."

In his defense he wasn't saying anything that most red-blooded American males didn't identify with, but back in the '70's one just didn't talk about such things in public. To his secular supporters he had committed an unforced error by bringing up one of the central struggles of being an evangelical Christian---that God judges men not by their actions but by what is in their hearts:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.---Matthew 5:27

Jimmy Carter spent his post-Presidency showing everyone what it was like to walk the walk over more than four decades. He and Rosalynn lived humbly in Plains, GA and gave generously of their time and money to philanthropic endeavors.

IMHO, Jimmy Carter's failures provide the answer to a question that journalists liked to ask during the recent Presidential campaign: "How can Christians vote for a rapist, serial liar, and convicted felon?" The answer is obvious: we elected a saint once before, and look where that got us. R.I.P.

Ministering in Manhattan

Conservative ministers adhere more closely to traditional morality and do not find much fertile soil in California and New York. However, one such pastor has attracted followers in Manhattan: [bold added]

Dr. [Timothy] Keller, 71, has earned a wide following for his erudite and engaging teaching of the Gospel. Since he founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan in 1989, his appeal to young, educated professionals has helped it grow from a few dozen members to more than 5,000 weekly attendees across three locations. His sermons, which address believers and nonbelievers alike, are available on a podcast that over 2.5 million people download each month. He has also written more than two dozen books on subjects such as God, death, marriage and meaning; his new book “Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?” will be published in November.

Dr. Keller’s model of evangelism is often described as “winsome.” He avoids talk of fire and brimstone and never raises his voice. Instead he uses logic and the occasional joke to make a case for the Christian worldview: “You can’t prove it but you can reason for it,” he says.

He likes to point out that both theists and atheists operate in the absence of proof, and that all values and worldviews demand some faith. For example, Dr. Keller argues that the secular concept of human rights makes little sense “in a universe in which there’s nothing but the material, everything is a product of evolution and all morality is relative.” Why, he asks, should we care if someone else suffers? How do we know the difference between right and wrong? The view that all human beings are “precious and equal in dignity,” he argues, comes from the idea of “a personal God who made us all in his image.” Dr. Keller therefore worries about the fate of morality in a world without God.

Though he is theologically conservative, Dr. Keller is wary of calling himself “evangelical,” largely owing to the term’s political implications. “It creates images in people’s minds that don’t fit me,” he explains. Although the Bible teaches that we should welcome immigrants and help the poor, he notes that it doesn’t specify whether government should be big or small, or whether taxes should be high or low. Thus Christians shouldn’t feel they are obligated to vote for either Democrats or Republicans. He adds that politics are creating serious fissures within the church. “People are walking away from each other,” he says. “It’s quite painful.”

For at least 15 years the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of which I am a member has espoused political positions indistinguishable from the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Now that the bishop has announced his retirement, my hope is not that his successor's politics will be closer to mine but that we will find a bishop who is less concerned with preaching about politics at all.

Outside the walls of the church the airwaves are filled with opinions about Caesar and who the next Caesar will be. Dr. Keller, who by the way is a registered Democrat, and 5,000 Manhattanites prefer to talk about God instead.

It's Everywhere

50 years ago I became friends with a group of evangelical Christians. They were nice people, law-abiding, hard-working, but they had one bee in their bonnet that I had difficulty accepting: they saw the devil in everything.

Thank goodness we're more enlightened today. We now know that systemic racism, not fictional Satan, is everywhere. For example, take a simple package of tea.

White tea, without evidence, is declared to be "more beneficial" than green tea. And note that black tea hasn't even entered the discussion.

On the front of the package "white" has the larger font.

White dominance is easy to see once you look for it.

The First and Best of Them all

(Image from All Uganda news)

To Americans over fifty Billy Graham was the evangelist. Not a priest or bishop, he didn't need silk raiments to clothe his words with authority, just the Bible held in his left hand. There were slicker, more telegenic preachers who rose to challenge his prominence, but his strict probity from the start enabled him to stand while others fell ignominiously.

He also established standards of financial and sexual propriety that maintained his reputation over a half-century of possible temptations and served as a model to shell-shocked colleagues after the televangelical scandals of the 1980s.

WSJ: "Yet, unlike some of his contemporaries, who won fame but flamed out— Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker —Mr. Graham’s mission was never derailed by scandal."

R.I.P., Rev. Graham, and as the saying goes, I hope you found what you were looking for.