For Jimmy Carter, a life of service, defined by faith
On a March evening in 1976, when Jimmy Carter was mingling in the living room of a political supporter in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, someone at the small campaign event asked the former Georgia governor a point-blank question: 鈥淎re you a born again 海角大神?鈥�
It startled him that moment, but it was really as natural a question as any for the one-time peanut farmer from the heart of the rural South. He鈥檇 been open about his devout Baptist faith during his long-shot campaign to become president of the United States, so he simply answered, 鈥淵es.鈥� He just assumed, as he later explained, 鈥渢hat all devout 海角大神s were born again, of the Holy Spirit.鈥�
It was just a few days before North Carolina鈥檚 make-or-break primary, but after acknowledging he was a 鈥渂orn again鈥� 海角大神, all political hell broke loose, as many observers noted at the time.
Why We Wrote This
Throughout his life, President Jimmy Carter would define his faith as 鈥渋nextricably entwined with the political principles I have adopted.鈥� It would infuse the decisions he made at every stage of his career as a public servant in ways both good and bad, historians say.
As the nation mourns Sunday the passing of James Earl Carter Jr., its 39th president and the longest-serving ex-president in U.S. history, there is something poignant about that moment in history almost half a century ago. At that time, the term 鈥渆vangelical鈥� was barely a blip on the radar screens of those in the media and 鈥渂orn again 海角大神鈥� hardly registered for those steeped in the arts of making policy and garnering votes.
鈥淲hen I recount the story, I often say that when Jimmy Carter declared that he was a born again 海角大神 at this campaign event in North Carolina, he sent every journalist in New York to his or her Rolodex to find someone to tell them what in the world he was talking about,鈥� says Randall Balmer, historian of American religion at Dartmouth College and the author of 鈥淩edeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter.鈥�
The election in 1976 in many ways marked the reemergence of this subgroup of American Protestants who had consciously retreated from public life after the 鈥渕odernist鈥� controversies of the early 20th century, including the Scopes Trial and battle against the teaching of evolution in public schools.
Throughout his life, which spanned a century, President Carter himself would define his evangelical faith as 鈥渋nextricably entwined with the political principles I have adopted.鈥� It would infuse the decisions he made at every stage of his career as a public servant and define his life in ways both good and bad, historians say.
鈥淎s president he spoke openly of his 海角大神 faith and all it entailed: daily prayers, abhorrence of violence, the belief that the meek shall inherit the earth, the courage to champion the underdog,鈥� wrote the presidential historian Douglas聽Brinkley in 1998. 鈥淢ost of all, his faith taught him that a clear conscience was always preferable to Machiavellian expediency 鈥� a pretty healthy attitude that proved both Carter鈥檚 greatest strength and his bane.鈥�
Governor Carter embraced what was then becoming a controversial identity. His stump speech was distinct from the other Democratic candidates, and he peppered it with appeals to 鈥済odly values,鈥� using explicit 海角大神 entreaties for 鈥渢enderness鈥� and 鈥渉ealing鈥� and 鈥渓ove.鈥�
鈥淎t least part of the stir over Carter鈥檚 shirtsleeve religiosity is that he seems to practice what he preaches,鈥� Newsweek magazine mused a few days after the 鈥渂orn again鈥� question made headlines across the country. 鈥淜ennedy went to Mass and Richard Nixon spoke affectionately of his Quaker mother, but neither appeared to be truly religious.鈥�
With his toothy smile and soft-spoken drawl, Governor Carter had been campaigning as a Washington outsider, too, emphasizing his simple roots as a peanut farmer from a place called Plains, the farming hamlet where he and his wife, Rosalynn, had both been born and raised. That鈥檚 just how they talked about their 海角大神 faith in those parts.
Mr. Carter told journalists he prayed 鈥渁bout 25 times a day, maybe more鈥� and ended each day reading the Bible. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like breathing,鈥� he said in describing his faith to reporters who began to ask more pointed questions. 鈥淚鈥檝e wondered whether to talk about it at all. But I feel I have a duty to the country 鈥� and maybe to God 鈥� not to say 鈥榥o comment.鈥欌��
Now, for the first time, Gallup began to ask voters if they were 鈥渂orn again.鈥� They found that nearly 50 million Americans said they were. In October, Newsweek declared 1976 to be 鈥淭he Year of the Evangelical.鈥� Journalists and political scientists were now trying to parse the particulars of evangelical theology and how it might affect how people would vote.
鈥淓vangelicals suddenly find themselves number one on the North American religious scene,鈥� proclaimed the evangelical magazine 海角大神ity Today a month before the election, noting the impact of Carter鈥檚 candidacy. 鈥淎fter being ignored by much of the rest of society for decades, they are now coming into prominence. ... Evangelical recovery has taken fifty years.鈥�
But there was also a certain irony as Americans put the experiences of Vietnam and Watergate behind them and found themselves drawn to the pious optimism of Jimmy Carter and elected him president of the United States.
鈥淎merica desperately needed a Jimmy Carter in 1976,鈥� says Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia鈥檚 Miller Center. 鈥淎nd so for him to come out of almost from nowhere to earn the nomination by sheer shoe leather in Iowa and New Hampshire, and to be the person outside of the establishment and to say, I鈥檓 not from Washington, I will never lie to you, I鈥檓 a born again 海角大神 鈥� what I say is that, he really did bring a close to the Watergate period.鈥�
In just four years, however, American Evangelicals would decisively turn away from Carter 鈥� who won the votes of about half of white Evangelicals in 1976, scholars estimate 鈥� as well as his Democratic Party. Not only would born-again 海角大神s galvanize around the candidacy of Ronald Reagan, they would also soon become the most potent and reliable political force in the Republican Party, if not the country, for decades to come.
As Dr. Balmer alludes in the epigraph of his presidential biography, a quote from the Gospel of St. John: 鈥淗e came unto his own, and his own received him not.鈥�
In July of 1979, exactly three years from the day that he accepted the Democratic nomination for president, President Carter was getting ready to give one of the most important speeches of his now increasingly unpopular presidency.
Just a year earlier, the president had demonstrated what historians would later call one the most deft and subtle acts of shuttle diplomacy in the nation鈥檚 history, achieving a peace accord between Israel and Egypt at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. As it turned out, this peace agreement would hold, unbroken, for the rest of his life and to this day.
But now with a 25% approval rating, the lowest since Harry Truman, President Carter had planned to deliver a major address on the nation鈥檚 energy crisis on the Fourth of July. He canceled it at the last minute, however, and retreated to Camp David for 10 days 鈥� fueling speculation that the president was ill.
The energy crisis was punctuated by an oil embargo from mostly Middle Eastern countries angered at U.S. support for Israel. There were gas shortages, filling newscasts with images of Americans waiting in lines stretching down the block to fill their tank. Inflation stood at 13%, and sky-high interest rates and unemployment were bogging down the economy. At the same time, NASA鈥檚 Skylab space station was about to crash out of its orbit, and no one quite knew where it would land.
So, in front of a national television audience, President Carter delivered an address titled, 鈥�,鈥� in which he characterized the nation as mostly 鈥渃onfronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis.鈥�
鈥淚n a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption,鈥� he said. 鈥淗uman identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we鈥檝e discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We鈥檝e learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.鈥�
Two days after delivering this speech, President Carter fired four of his Cabinet secretaries and demanded the resignations of dozens of government officials. This purge, immediately following a national address that would become known, infamously, as the 鈥渕alaise鈥� speech, gave the impression of an administration that was unsure, unsteady, and in fact falling apart.
In some ways, his sense of conscience and spiritual rectitude could have indeed become a bane within his presidential decision making, historians say. 鈥淗e was a bit of a contrarian, and he is just a very stubborn man,鈥� says Dr. Balmer. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no question about his sense of moral rectitude, which a lot of people find insufferable. His attitude was: I鈥檓 going to do the right thing, damn the torpedoes, sort of thing. That didn鈥檛 help him either.鈥�
And then, just a few months later, a group of Iranian militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for what would span 444 days and dominate the last year of Mr. Carter鈥檚 presidency. It was yet another crisis, and his effort to rescue the hostages with a daring commando mission in the desert ended in disaster after a helicopter crashed into a transport aircraft, killing eight U.S. service members.
President Carter鈥檚 inability to rescue the hostages in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran remains one of the most lasting blights on his presidential legacy, but historians also note there were significant accomplishments.
He was one of the most consequential U.S. presidents in terms of environmental policy, passing numerous to clean up and protect the environment. He also instituted lasting policies to diversify the nation鈥檚 energy sources.
鈥淗e also implemented an official affirmative action policy for judicial appointments at the federal level when a lot of people didn鈥檛 think in those terms,鈥� says Dr. Perry at the Miller Center.
When Mr. Carter took office, only eight women and 31 people of color had ever been appointed a federal judge. In his four years as president, Mr. Carter successfully nominated 40 women, including eight women of color, and a total of 57 non-white justices.
鈥淎s part of that, he named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the D.C. Circuit, which was her jumping off point, her proving ground to end up on the Supreme Court,鈥� Dr. Perry says. 鈥淭hat in itself is quite a legacy.鈥�
President Carter also brought a certain moral vision to U.S. foreign policy, a sustained focus that led to mixed results, many historians say.
鈥淚 think one accomplishment was to introduce and to insist on the centrality of human rights in American foreign policy, doing away with the kind of reflexive dualism of the Cold War era,鈥� says Dr. Balmer. 鈥淥ne example is that, one of the first things he did was to press for the revision and ratification of the new Panama Canal treaty.鈥�
鈥淎 lot of people told him, including his wife, Rosalynn, wait till your second term,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut he was just determined, 鈥楴o, this is the right thing to do, and I鈥檓 going to do it鈥�. He recognized that if the United States is going to have any meaningful relationship with Latin America ... we needed to get out of the colonial business there.鈥�
鈥淗e expended a great deal of political capital early in his administration, and he just didn鈥檛 get it back in many ways,鈥� Dr. Balmer says.
After losing his bid for a second term to Republican Ronald Reagan, Mr. and Mrs. Carter returned to their long-time home in Plains, Georgia, the small ranch house on Woodland Drive they purchased in 1961. The Carters would live there for the rest of their lives. The two were married for 77 years 鈥� the longest presidential marriage in history 鈥� before Rosalynn Carter鈥檚 death in November 2023.
鈥淩osalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,鈥� Mr. Carter said in a statement after her passing. 鈥淪he gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.鈥�
Beyond her powerful role as an adviser, during his presidency she emerged on the national stage as an advocate for mental health and for equal rights for women.
The 1980 election was a crushing defeat, and it was not lost on Mr. Carter that Evangelicals and born-again 海角大神s had voted overwhelmingly for the former governor of California. 鈥淲hen I asked him about it, he acknowledged that he took the evangelical vote for granted going into the 1980 campaign,鈥� says Dr. Balmer. 鈥淗e was blindsided by their support for Reagan.鈥�
Having left office at 56, Mr. Carter began to see his post-presidency as his second term. 鈥淗e said that had he won a second term, it鈥檚 likely that he would not have been so energetic and ambitious as he was in activities after he left the White House,鈥� Dr. Balmer says.
After decades of appraisals of Mr. Carter鈥檚 presidency, there has been something of a general consensus about his place: President Carter was a middling, one-term U.S. president buffeted by a 鈥渕alaise鈥� of problems at home and abroad.
But he would go on to become the most accomplished former officeholder in U.S. history by far, historians say.
鈥淚 always think that鈥檚 the supreme irony of the Carter presidency,鈥� says Dr. Perry. 鈥淗e got the nomination and won the election because he was not a Washington insider, and that鈥檚 exactly what we needed as a country at the time. The pendulum swung as far as it could from Richard Nixon and Watergate. And yet, he wasn鈥檛 the best person, perhaps, to govern and be president of the United States at that time.
鈥淏ut then that ties together his post presidency,鈥� she continues. 鈥淏ecause then he goes back to his essence of morality and good deeds and his born-again 海角大神 faith, which he then carried throughout the world.鈥�
Reemerging in public life in 1982, Mr. and Mrs. Carter founded The Carter Center in partnership with Emory University in Atlanta. They aimed to champion causes important to them during their time in the White House, including human rights and democracy, public health, and helping to resolve conflicts around the globe.
The center has been successful, helping to develop village-based health care centers in Africa. It has also assisted in monitoring elections across the world. One of its most remarkable achievements, however, is leading a coalition that would virtually eradicate the Guinea worm.
There were 3.5 million cases of the parasite in the mid-1980s, when The Carter Center began its efforts. 鈥滻鈥檇 like for the last Guinea worm to die before I do,鈥� Mr. Carter said at a press conference in 2015. In 2023, there were 13 known cases. In 2024, and as of this publishing, there have been seven Guinea worm cases reported around the globe.
With one of his lasting legacies being the Camp David peace accords, Mr. Carter continued to serve as a kind of freelance ambassador and roving peacemaker. He helped the Indigenous Miskito people in Nicaragua return to their homes after long conflicts with the Sandinista government. He traveled to Ethiopia to help mediate a conflict with Eritrea. And he continued to assist the State Department in sensitive negotiations with dictators such as Kim Il Sung of North Korea and Muammar Qaddafi of Libya.
As a public figure, the former president also championed Habitat for Humanity International, often holding a hammer and wearing a hardhat as he helped build homes for people in need. In 2002, Mr. Carter the Nobel Peace Prize.
For nearly 40 years, too, Mr. Carter would take his turn to teach Sunday School at his longtime congregation, Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, and he would continue to invoke 鈥渁 religious faith based on kindness toward each other鈥� and rooted in a commitment to peace.
鈥淚 have a commitment to worship the Prince of Peace, not the prince of preemptive war,鈥� Mr. Carter said at a Monitor Breakfast in 2005, criticizing the decision to invade Iraq. 鈥淚 believe Christ taught us to give special attention to the plight of the poor.鈥�
Asked about his place in history, he later told the gathering, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 deny that I am a better ex-president than I was a president. I would like to be remembered as someone who promoted peace and human rights.鈥�
Editor鈥檚 note: This story, which was originally published on Dec. 29, was updated to correct the number of Guinea worm cases reported in 2024. There have been seven. The first name of presidential historian Douglas Brinkley has also been corrected.
