I was surprised by my real sadness over the passing of James Earl Carter, Jr. Back in October, I wrote a post about him in honor of his 100th birthday, which I felt could serve as his obituary.
Yet, I needed to share this NY Times piece. I suspect there is a compare and contrast element. 45/47, “who often denigrated Mr. Carter and, in recent days, spoke of unraveling one of his signature accomplishments, the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama, issued a gracious statement.” It was rather perfunctory, I thought.
But Russell Moore wrote in the Atlantic [paywall], “Jimmy Carter told me to stop worrying about Donald Trump.”
“When Carter invited me to meet with him in his Atlanta office, just a few weeks after the world-shocking 2016 U.S. presidential election, I assumed the topic would be Donald Trump. After all, I was a vocal evangelical-Christian critic of Trump, and now the religious right was gathering steam for revenge. Some Trump-supporting evangelicals wanted me to be fired or the religious organization I was working for at the time to be defunded. I was rattled by what a Trump presidency would mean for American democracy and, more important, for the witness of the Church after white evangelicals proved to be Trump’s most loyal base. Carter was unfazed.
“’These things have happened before,’ he said. ‘Everything has a way of coming back around. What seems unstoppable and inevitable never is.’”
“I thought to myself, Well, he should know. Carter had experienced himself how quickly political realities change.”
Radical faith
“Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, evaluates Carter’s signature, even radical emphasis on human rights. She attributes much of his approach to his deeply held evangelical faith and his ’empathy for individuals who had suffered human rights abuse,’ at home and abroad.”
Anna Marks, NYT Opinion Staff Editor: “I encountered a man who chose to pursue the betterment of the human condition over his own aggrandizement, enrichment, or legacy. Americans love to imagine themselves as noble leaders deeply committed to generosity, tolerance, and the greater good… Carter was the rare one of us who actually met that image’s challenge to the benefit of the world.”
Kelly Sedinger: “They say a good man can’t get elected President. I don’t believe that. Do you?”
Borowitz Report: “When Americans elected Carter in 1976, they chose a man who pledged never to lie to them. He was a refreshing response to the cesspool of Republican lying typified by Watergate. By electing Reagan in 1980, Americans returned to the cesspool.
“Forty-four years later, we find ourselves back in that cesspool yet again—and looking for an honest person like Jimmy Carter to lead us someplace better.”
Books by about Jimmy Carter from Barnes and Noble.
The THR piece.
I imagine I will watch at least part of the memorial service for Jimmy Carter, although I probably won’t watch the inauguration of 47, who is fuming over flags being at half-staff on Jan 20.
