This Week of Memorials to Jimmy Carter is Emphasizing the Stark Contrast Between His Strong, Christian Faith and Trump's Worldly, Immoral Corruption

As attention once again focused on America's 39th President, Jimmy Carter, following his death at 100 years of age, the stark contrast between his Christian faith, which he characterized for Americans unfamiliar with conservative Evangelicalism back in the 1970's by using a term from John's gospel, "Born Again," and the conservative Evangelicals who turned away from Carter to the right, to support a divorced, "B" movie Hollywood actor with no ties to any specific religion, except perhaps the New Age superstitions of his second wife, is noticeable.  Carter, who is the only President to teach Sunday School while serving as President, and who has been a visible and notable role model in exhibiting the characteristics and values of the Christian gospel in his entire public life, stands in contrast to their racism, doctrinal purity and hypocrisy.  

The disconnect between Carter and the right wing Evangelical leadership has a lot to do with their blending of right wing extremist politics with their theology and doctrine, creating heretical principles requiring adherence to doctrinal conformity, and to certain political partisan perspectives as orthodoxy, rather than living the lifestyle that is the Christian gospel of Jesus Christ.  Carter's theology, as exhibited by what he has taught in his Sunday School classes, is consistent with the life he lives and the values he exhibits, which is what the emphasis of conservative Evangelicalism once was.  But the partisan political orientation of most of the rest of America's conservative Evangelicals has led them astray.  

And that's why they can't stand Carter.  People see the difference, and they associate Carter with the Christian gospel of Jesus Christ, and conservative Evangelicals with the partisan legalism they've embraced, including wrapping their arms around one of the most worldly, immoral, licentious-living, corrupt, anti-Christian human beings alive on this planet in Donald Trump.  

And of course, that's getting a reaction.  

Baptist News Global: Al Mohler Says He Hopes Jimmy Carter is Born Again

Baptist News Global: Al Mohler Accuses Jimmy Carter of International Crimes

Baptist News Global: The Moral Hypocrisy of Al Mohler and other Evangelicals of His Ilk

Carter's Faith Has Remained Consistent With His Beliefs For His Whole Lifetime

Carter, a Southern Baptist, was elected in 1976.  Just three years later, the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest of America's Evangelical denominations, was embroiled in a doctrinal and theological controversy between fundamentalists, influenced heavily by Jerry Falwell and other independent Baptists, and more moderate elements, who were, at the time, represented by a majority on the denomination's executive committee and institutional trustee boards.  The aim of the fundamentalist group was to take over control of each of the six theological seminaries owned by the denomination, forcing them to fire professors who did not adhere to the literalist heresy of fundamentalism. 

It took a decade of campaigning, getting delegates, known as messengers, from churches to the convention annual meeting, but after electing a series of fundamentalist-leaning presidents with appointment powers, by 1989, the Southern Baptist Convention, and its six theological seminaries, two mission boards and Lifeway Christian Publishing house were under complete fundamentalist control.  

The campaign against Carter, let by Falwell and Pat Robertson, along with a Texas evangelist by the name of James Robison, got underway just prior to the 1980 election.  The first sign that the Evangelical political movement would be much more political than it would be Christian came when they chose to support Ronald Reagan's presidential bid.  Reagan clearly had no idea what it meant to be Christian, or what the difference was between Evangelicals and any other Christians but he had advisors who saw the potential swing of votes going from Carter to Reagan under the influence of these obscure leaders.  And so, a man who, by virtue of his divorce and remarriage, would have been ineligible for any leadership role in a church, was supported by these same people to be the political leader of the United States of America.  

Being a peacemaker is one of the prime virtues of the Christian gospel.  Jesus himself not only mentions it, but accords those who are peacemakers the honor of being known as "children of God."  But Carter's peacemaking, initially represented by the Camp David Accords, and the negotiation of what has been the longest lasting Middle Eastern peace agreement in modern times, did not sit well with the Evangelical fundamentalists.  Nor did his refusal to impose specific Evangelical beliefs and convictions regarding abortion rights and same gender relationships using the power of the Presidency sit well with them.  Carter held strong convictions regarding the morality of abortion and homosexuality, but he held equally strong convictions about the Presidency upholding the constitution, including the principles of freedom of conscience and separation of church and state and chose the right path in terms of where specific Christian moral issues stood as a matter of law.  

Carter had been opposed to racial discrimination and segregation from the day he was first inaugurated as Governor of Georgia.  And his convictions had led him and his wife, along with a number of other families, to form the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, which welcomed black members and even once called a black pastor.  And that, specifically, may have been what irritated conservative Evangelical leaders the most.  

Within the Southern Baptist Convention, when fundamentalists completed their takeover of the trustee boards and executive committee, effectively controlling all denominational entities, a group of more moderate Baptist churches formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a much more moderate, and more Christian, group of churches and individuals, many of which simply stopped supporting the SBC, though some formally withdrew.  Not only did the moderate Baptists object to the racist white supremacy of the now blended religious and political right, they also objected to their other legalistic stances, including forbidding women from serving as church leaders, specifically in the role of Pastor.  

Maranatha Baptist Church was one of about 3,200 churches which stopped their financial support for the Southern Baptist Convention, and joined the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.  As the gospel of Jesus Christ says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."  

Jesus also said, "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12, NRSV.  

Carter did far more for the cause of peacemaking than the Camp David Accords.  He devoted his life and the mission of the center he established in Atlanta to the peaceful resolution of conflicts around the world.  He provided not only leadership, but physical labor to help people realize the dream of owning their own home.  And he taught the Christian gospel, without the interjection of literalist, legalistic fundamentalism and right wing extremism.  

And so it is that the world can see the contrast between a true, born-again Christian in Jimmy Carter, and the worldliness exhibited by Trump, and supported by leaders of American Evangelicalism, who are distancing themselves from true Christianity and showing the true nature of their personal beliefs.