The Christian spirituality of Jimmy Carter: we are all human

Jimmy Carter has left the world with a hundred years and being in American history The president with a more alive religiosity. His deep spirituality led him to compromise all his strength and time with peace in the world and integral ecology, which made him a Nobel Prize. Ordered deaconnot only served the great social, peaceful and environmental causes, but to ordinary parish life and religious reflection. Among his thirty books is a commented Bible.

‘RD Report’ with analysis and the final document of the Synod

The last pubic task that Jimmy Carter did was give Sunday catechesisin the same way he had been doing sixty years in his Baptist parish of Maranatha, in his native village, Plains, in the state of Georgia, where he formed, he worked now where he returned after his four years in the White House. The pandemia meant that with 95 years he stopped carrying catechesis groups, but, nevertheless, he continued to prepare some sermons for the congregation and when the advanced disease took away the necessary forces for that work, he continued to help the leaders of the community advising them on them about improvements in their homilies.

His baptist Christianity combined a faith in the flower with a strong rationality, and had progressive positions in the field of equality between women and men – “I personally believe that women should play an absolutely the same role in the service of Christ in the Church” (ABC News, 2000) -, and the legitimacy of homosexuality.

Disagreements with its congregation

In June 2000, the Assembly of the South Baptist Church – the largest of the Protestant churches in the US, with 16 million members – had voted a non -binding resolution (each local congregation enjoyed freedom for its application) in virtue of which women had to stop exercising as pastors and homosexuality was condemned. Actually, the conflict with the Baptist denomination was deeper because since the 1980s they had supported a doctrine contrary to the separation between Church and State, and threatening the freedom of the press. The fundamentalist right -wing of baptism – in line with the moral majority founded during its presidency in synchrony with the most radical republicanism – violated essential democratic principles for Carter. That caused disagreements with the congregation to which five generations of his family had belonged And in autumn of that year 2000 his family ended up changing to another more inclusive. The Maranatha de Plains parish enthusiastically welcomed its new and committed parishioners.

Sump It represents the turn of religious politics in the United States. Man of Honda and Viva Fe, committed to the transmission and celebration of the same, married to his inseparable Rosalynn and Pilar of a large family, a welcoming neighbor of all his neighbors without difference in creed, origin or color, creator of wealth and socioeconomic justice In your company, overturned to world pacification to avoid human suffering.

However, With the same force he prevented politics from manipulating religions and that the churches undermine democracy and the equality of all citizens. The Interdenominational Foundation of the moral majority led by the most radical telepredters, constituted a partisan lobby that began a turn to an exclusive Christianity in the United States and then in the world. He was aggressively delegitimizing the Christian communities that did not yield to right. This was gradually being excluded by América de Merton, Park, the Berrigan, Corita Kent, Nouwen or Jimmy Carter. Thus, the religious base of the Democratic Party was delegitimated as a Christianexcluded from the congregations and parishes, and finally abandoned as sheep without a pastor. Professor Randall Balmer, from Darmouth College, expressively titled his obituary: “Carter, the last progressive evangelical.” However, until the end Carter remained creative, mystiquely and apostolic to Christ.

From the beginning, his life was marked by intense social commitment. His mother, Lillian, who was a nurse, admitted to treat people from the African -American community in a context dominated by a rigid segregationism. Jimmy played with other children regardless of their skin color in a town in the American South in which racism was very radical. His mother dedicated himself with passion for his son to have a deep vision of human dignity and an open conception of the world and history, and that not only did it through his behavior, but instilling a great love for reading. That is the root that led him to, when he gave his first speech as governor of Georgia, he proclaimed: «The time of racial discrimination has ended… No poor, rural, weak or African -American person must have an additional load that deprives him of The opportunity of an education, a job or just justice »and hung a great portrait of Martin Luther King in the State Capitol of the city of Atlanta, the first African -American who saw those walls.

His mandate began under the Tsunami of economic, urban, cultural and political crisis that had unleashed 1973, in the middle of a western climate of demolition of the classical industrial system and the emergence of a new productive mode. Although his policies – very influenced by his experience as a great entrepreneur – They set the basis for overcoming such a serious crisisthe electorate did not give time to see the results and voted for Republican Reagan, who soon reaped the recovery planted by Carter.

Especially prominent was his strong impulse to peace in the Middle East, to which he dedicated great efforts, Until Camp David agreements in 1978. The interreligious understanding between the Christian Carter, the Jew Menachem Begin and the Egyptian president, the Muslim Anwar Sadat was key. In general, his international policy was a turn in the role of the United States, not only more peaceful – in 2011 he declared “we did not throw any bomb. We do not shoot any bullet. We do not participate in any war … And we still achieve our international objectives ”(Cadwaladr, 2011)) – but also prevented that during his mandate the great US corporations will continue with their exploitation and support policies to dictatorships in Latin America.

Their most criticized operation was the failure in the attempt of liberation, North American hostages in Tehran, Although, in reality, he did his release. He received the news at the White House minutes after Reagan finished his possession speech. Months before Jomeini had obeyed a message from Reagan’s candidacy so that, in exchange for a favor treatment in the following administration, he did not announce the liberation of the hostages before the elections.

His last article saw the light on January 6, 2022 on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Capitol assault. His words did not come only from the authority of who has been the 39th President of the United States, but from whom through the Carter Center and multiple initiatives he has known in greater depth that any of his contemporaries the entrails of the descents that lead to the wars civilians and tyrannies. I wrote in The New York Times that the powerful antidemocratic movement “threatens to collapse the foundations of our security and democracy at an amazing speed. Now I fear that what we have fought so hard worldwide – the right to free and fair elections, without the influence of authoritarian politicians who only seek to increase their own power – has become dangerously fragile at home.

Its lucid diagnosis does not hide the danger: «Currently, our great nation wobbles on the edge of an increasingly large abyss. Without immediate action, we run a real risk of entering a civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. The Americans must put aside the differences and work together before it is too late ». Therefore, among other solutions, he urges that “we must look for a way to meet again in the division, in a respectful and constructive way, through cordial conversations with family, friends and co -workers, and the collective reaction against the forces that divide us.” After all, “We need to focus on some fundamental truths: we are all human”.

Carter leaves us A social and spiritual legacy First magnitude that should inspire all the planet’s Christians.

References

• ABC News (2000). Jimmy Carter Leaves Southern Baptists. ABC NewsOctober 20, 2000.
• Adams, Lian & Hinton, Carla (2024). The Faith of Jimmy Carter. The Tennessean, December 29, 2024.
• Balmer, Randall (2024). Jimmy Carter: The Last Progressive Evangelical. Magazine politicianDecember 29, 2024.
• Bruinius, Harry (2024). For Jimmy Carter, A Life of Service, Defined By Faith. The Christian Science MonitorDecember 29, 2024.
• Cadwaladr, Carole (2011). Jimmy Carter: ‘We Never Dropped to Bomb. We Never Fire to Bullet. We Never Went To War ‘. The GuardianSeptember 11, 2011.
• Carter, Jimmy (2022). I fear for our democracy. The New York TimesJanuary 6, 2022.
• Pinedo, Peter & Oliver-Méndez, Ken (2024). Christian Faith A Hallmark of Former President Jimmy Carter’s Life. Catholic News AgencyDecember 29, 2024.
• Ramírez, María (2024). Jimmy Carter, the ephemeral, religious and pacifist president. The newspaper.esDecember 30, 2024.
• Tyler, Amanda (2024). Jimmy Carter’s Commitment to Religious Liberty Should Guide Us All. Time MagazineDecember 29, 2024.