Column Jimmy Carter most devout of presidents
By ROBERT F. DRINAN
In recent American history, most
have considered Abraham Lincoln the most religious president. His theology was
vague, but he clearly believed that he and his fellow Americans had a role in
God's mysterious providence.
Lincoln's claim to that position, though, has been seriously
challenged by former President Jimmy Carter's 1996 book Living Faith
(Times Books).
Carter, the 39th U.S. president, reveals an intimate and intense
relationship with Christ as his savior. He has embraced the full range of
beliefs espoused by Southern Baptists while refusing to align himself with the
agenda of the religious right.
Carter reveals that soon after he left the Navy he read books by
Paul Tillich, Karl Barth, Reinhold Neibuhr and Hans Küng. Carter is not a
theologian. He restates the basic teachings of Christianity and explains
without much analysis the basic concepts espoused by an evangelical Christian.
He knows scripture; he uses it every Sunday when he teaches adults and children
in his Baptist church. He describes himself as born-again and proclaims that
"religious faith has always been at the core of my very existence."
I found myself enchanted by some of the truly lovely and indeed
astonishing acclamations of faith in this assertion of religious beliefs,
unprecedented in any highly placed U.S. political figure's career. The personal
identification Jimmy Carter has with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit permeates
this manifesto, reminiscent in places of The Imitation of Christ, the
15-century work of Thomas à Kempis.
Carter pays tribute to his late sister, Ruth, who was a successful
evangelist, and to the faith of his parents, his wife and members of his
congregation in Plains, Ga., where he has been a deacon for 30 years. Ruth
helped heal his bruised faith when in 1966 he lost the governor's race in
Georgia to racist Lester Maddox. Carter also speaks sadly of the divorces of
two of his sons and laments that his grandchildren are not regular members of
any church.
This loyal son of the Baptist tradition tells us that he prayed
more as president than at any other time in his life. He preaches an orthodox
Christianity; for him sin, eternal life, guilt, love of others and the presence
of the Holy Spirit are basic and undisputed truths. Direct, personal kindness
to our neighbors is very important to Carter; he brings this to his church in
Plains. He takes pride in telling of his work with Habitat for Humanity.
Other recent presidents -- Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan
and Bush -- used the language of public piety that goes back in American
history as far as George Washington. But no previous president has manifested
the personal and intense adherence to Christianity that Carter expresses in
Living Faith.
Jimmy Carter does not claim any special corner to his own
religious beliefs. Indeed he tends to equate the Catholic, Protestant and
Buddhist explanations of reality as essentially equal. No defender of sectarian
differences, he is a Christian who accepts the Bible as the word of God and the
person of Christ as the greatest grace God has given to all his sons and
daughters.
Most Catholics will have to admire this book. Some will find the
personal identification with Christ a bit alien to their own approach. Some may
feel, however, that Carter's almost mystical closeness to Christ suggests a
tradition Catholicism has obscured and the Catholic church should
re-emphasize.
Carter's credo is interwoven with stories about his family, his
activities since he left the White House in 1981 and recollections of his early
years when he left the Navy, a move stressful to his wife, Rosalynn. Some
readers will feel that these recollections divert attention from the story of
his religious pilgrimage. But his faith is so oriented to people and actions
that he probably could not discuss it except in the context of people and
activities.
It seems unlikely that Carter, at age 70, will study and pray so
that he can speak with authority as a professional theologian or as an official
representative of the church. Indeed, such a role would not be in the Baptist
tradition where each person is urged to interpret the Bible individually.
Some readers will wish that Carter had linked his faith directly
to the decisions he made in the Oval Office. His failure or inability to do
this will suggest to some that, ultimately, Carter's faith was too personal to
be related to the complex social and moral problems a president has to face. It
is even possible, ironically, that Carter's deep personal faith may have
contributed to the widely held conviction that religious faith should be
removed from decision-making in public life.
Questions about the relationship of Carter's faith to his
presidency are beyond our ken at this time. But what is clear is that Jimmy
Carter, a sincere and perhaps a bit naive believer in Jesus Christ, has
proclaimed his faith in a most unusual fashion. His testament to grace is
unlike any ever made by the nation's 42 presidents. For that alone and for many
other reasons, Living Faith is a moving and memorable volume.
Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan is a professor at Georgetown
University Law Center.
National Catholic Reporter, May 30,
1997
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