I was only 11 years old when Jimmy Carter was elected President
of the United States. Frankly, I was more interested in the movie “Rocky” and
all the bicentennial celebrations than I was politics. I remember the media portraying
him as a goofy peanut farmer with a toothy smile and a quirky family. Still, I
was aware of the big newsy aspects of his time in office including the Iran
Hostage Crisis, brokering peace with Egypt and Israel, the energy crisis,
ceding control of the Panama Canal and boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow because the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan.
The consensus was that Carter was a mediocre president. This,
of course, had everything to do with the economic situation he had inherited and
the lack of cooperation among his own party. He will forever be consigned as
the buffer between the pessimistic scandals of the Nixon/Ford era and the optimistic
Reagan years.
Most people would agree that his post-presidential life is
where he truly shined and demonstrated his character and had a greater global
impact. Motivated by his Christian faith, he was a tireless advocate for human
rights, world peace and the fight against poverty. He won the 2002 Nobel Peace
Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to
international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote
economic and social development.”
As both an undergraduate at Emory University (1983-87) and a
seminary student at Candler School of Theology (1994-96) I had the privilege of
sitting in a class with Carter as a guest lecturer. It was a unique opportunity
for me to sit mere feet from the former leader of the free world and ask him questions.
My main impression of those occasions was how sharply intelligent he was in contrast
to his common portrayal as a hapless country bumpkin.
With his work through the Carter Center, Habitat for Humanity and
other organizations, I feel that the former president lived out the passages
from James 2:14-18:
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone
claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a
brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to
them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their
physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is
not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I
have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by
my deeds.
May we all aspire to a mere fraction of the impact this man
had on the world and local stages in his 100 years of life. Well done, good and
faithful servant.
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