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Almost all Tribute to Jimmy Carter It is necessarily laden with warnings about President Carter. While it is true that the “Reagan Revolution” provided America with the necessary shocks of national and economic power, Carter, our 39th president, has consistently demonstrated traits that public figures of our time would do well to emulate.
Much about the infamous “Carter Years” is remembered with disdain, rightfully so. Those who lived in the late 1970s will remember mortgage rates in the teens, the Iranian hostage crisis, and long lines at gas stations. As is well documented, many of Carter's policies and handling of many issues during his presidency failed to improve the country's economy or the zeitgeist for its people. Name the issue (energy, economy, welfare, international relations, terrorism, bipartisanship, You are in) President Carter suffered from this.
But many – myself included – greatly admired him as a person, respected him as our president, and fondly remember his earnest smile and friendly wave. I think he was a really good human being, and because of his generally virtuous nature, Carter was a politician who didn't like to do politics. Staff in Washington did not like working with him, and international leaders did not seem to respect him.
Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, has died at the age of 100
Today, our nation suffers from another “naive leader” (although the 39th President was, I believe, a man of vastly superior character to the 46th). Late-night comics have gotten some easy laughs talking about how happy Jimmy Carter will be with a Biden presidency. But unlike Biden, President Carter It was, I think, a Benign presence.
He could have been the guy next door from any neighborhood in the heart of America—the one who showed the neighborhood kids how to fix their bikes. His personality was very much identical to my father's friends of that era, a friendly adult who you knew you could trust and who would help you if he could. Like Teddy Roosevelt, who invested his time in Christian endeavors after the White House, Mr. Carter went from meeting with world leaders to … teaching Sunday school.
President Jimmy Carter addresses a city meeting. The American flag hangs in the background.
When Carter took office in January 1977, America was in the wake of the Watergate scandal, and the end of the Vietnam War and the sexual and social unrest of the 1960s were generating a “new normal.” The 1970s were a time when guilt for sin was prime-time scorn (thanks, Norman Lear) and the legal ropes tying America to the moral foundations of Western civilization began to fray (thanks, ACLU).
Regarding the years of nation-shaping change that Carter was to inherit, A 1964 Time article He made these observations about the emerging mindset of many Americans:
“Pleasure is almost a constitutional right rather than a privilege, and self-denial is increasingly seen as folly rather than virtue. While science has lessened the fear of long-desired earthly dangers, skepticism has lessened the fear of divine punishment. In short, morality Puritanism, long the dominant moral force in the United States, is widely considered to be dying, if not dead, and there are few mourners.
In this middle, Candidate Jimmy Carter He declared himself a “born-again Christian” (a concept that many contemporary Americans were learning, no doubt, for the first time). Friendly and honest, Carter introduced something into public discourse that would change American politics forever: evangelical Christian witness.
Using words from the Gospel of John, chapter three, Candidate Carter spoke of being “born again,” and suddenly the term was part of the American vernacular. General Motors announced the “Born Again Oldsmobile.” The updated versions of the books and television shows were marketed as “born again”. Critics scoffed and commentators voiced their opinions, but the conversation was now in an irreversible phase: politics had mixed with religion and Jimmy Carter was the catalyst.
From left to right: former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. (HUM Images/Universal Image Collection via Getty Images)
Many other conservative Christian leaders may join the battle to preserve America's Judeo-Christian foundation. While Jimmy Carter's party is now associated with… Everything but “The Religious Right.” The record shows that Carter affirmed what no Democrat today would dare say: God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible were the cornerstones of his life, and they shaped his convictions and behavior.
Jimmy Carter demonstrated the “fruit of the Spirit” (see Galatians 5:22-23). Carter seems to embody Christ's words in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10:44: “Whoever is the greatest among you will be the servant of all.” Carter carried himself like a gentleman. While campaigning in the 1980 election, both Carter and Reagan embodied characteristics largely unknown in American politics today: they were respectful and dignified, and even their debate sparring was wholesome and watchable.
The 1970s were the period in which many negatives began that would lead to tragic consequences for decades to come (the rise of modern Islamic fundamentalism, the resurgence of Marxism in Europe, postmodernism in classrooms on both sides of the Atlantic, the accelerating collapse ). family throughout the West).
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But there's no denying that from that same era came someone who embodied some of the best things about America and American leaders: a Georgia peanut farmer, tilling the soil of a family farm, could become governor of his state, and then leader of his nation. . Faithful to his wife, Carter raised four children and later raised roofs over the heads of disadvantaged people. For many years, Carter's usual appearance in public was wearing a carpenter's nail apron while swinging a hammer to help others.
Jimmy Carter served his countryAnd His Church and Savior quietly left an example. Mr. President, I was just a kid at the time, but I was watching and taking notes. Good luck, sir, and thank you for serving our country as you have.
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