How Jimmy Carter Used Christian Realism In His Life of Politics 

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

Jimmy Carter, former U.S. President and global humanitarian, has died. He was 100. 

Carter, who had become the longest-lived former executive-in-chief in U.S. history a few months back, passed away Sunday surrounded by family at his home in Plains, Georgia. He had spent 22 months in hospice care.

In remarks on Sunday evening, President Joe Biden praised Carter as a “man of principle, faith and humility.” The two have had a storied relationship starting back when Biden endorsed Carter for president during his first term as senator in 1976.

“I think that what Jimmy Carter is an example of is just simple decency, simple decency,” Biden said. “And I think that’s what the rest of the world looks to America for.”

While Carter was a man of faith, his relationship with Christianity was quite flawed. In 1966, he recommitted himself to God after a failed bid for governor in Georgia. He eventually won the governorship in 1971, but not without employing backdoor political tactics to appeal to segregationists in the deeply southern state. He called the ploy part of Christian realism. 

“We live in a world that is imperfect and which will always be imperfect — a world that is complex and confused and which will always be complex and confused,” Carter said.

Once in the governor’s office, Carter did switch gears and promote equality, declaring that racial discrimination is over during his inauguration speech. His religious devotion underscored his life in and out of politics.

Carter taught Sunday school twice a month at his small-town church in Georgia up until his late 90s. Tourists would gather in the parking lot and sleep in their cars just to get a spot in the crowded sanctuary on Sunday mornings.

“In these troubled times today, he is like a beacon of light,” Jeanie Miglis told Yahoo News back in 2019. “He represents good morals; he represents hope and peace.”

A funeral for Carter will be held on January 9 which will coincide with a National Day of Mourning for the former Democratic president. President Biden will deliver the eulogy.

Carter will be laid to rest in Georgia next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died last year at the age of 96. 

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How Jimmy Carter Used Christian Realism to Govern His Life In Politics   was originally published on elev8.com