RIP, Jimmy Carter
Dear Friends in Christ,
I participated in my first election in November 1980. Since I was a freshman in college, I didn’t get the thrill of stepping into a voting booth (I voted by absentee ballot), but I distinctly remember the excitement of participating in the democratic process.
Growing up across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., I was a child with a deep interest in history and politics. I remember watching Richard Nixon’s second inauguration on TV. The whole thing. The oath of office, the speech, the parade. I was 10! In 1977, I loved watching Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter get out of the presidential limousine to walk up Pennsylvania Avenue. I was 14 years old and thought this was such a cool thing for a President of the United States to do. (Yes, I did have friends though this might be hard to believe.)
When I filled out my absentee ballot in the fall of 1980, I voted for Jimmy Carter. I was not unaware of the challenges of the time or his weaknesses (I was also a news nerd who read The Washington Post every day), but I trusted Carter. He was a good man who tried to do the right thing, even if he wasn’t the most inspiring leader.
Carter lost, of course, but I’ve never regretted my first vote. Nor did I stop paying attention to the way he lived his life after leaving Washington. By the mid-1980s, Carter and I had at least one thing in common. We were both Baptists who walked away from the Southern Baptist Convention. Carter remained Baptist (in a church not affiliated with the SBC) while I became Episcopalian, but we shared certain values, including the centrality of faith and a belief that every single human being deserves to be treated as a child of God.
Carter’s belief that every person reflected the image of God inspired him to work tirelessly for peace, to stand up to injustice, to insist on the importance of human rights, and to dedicate his post-presidential life to lifting up those on the margins. Carter’s faith was the catalyst for the choices he made, even when those choices hurt him politically.
“God gives us the capacity for choice,” Carter said in his speech accepting the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. “We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work for peace.”
We, too, can choose. You and I can choose to live our faith each day in whatever opportunities God gives us to shine the light of Christ for those who most need it.
Rest in peace, Jimmy Carter.
