Former President Jimmy Carter, who shocked the political world by winning the White House as a long-shot candidate in 1976 and who made his Christian faith a central part of his public testimony his entire adult life, died Sunday. He was 100. A former peanut farmer, Carter helped popularize the phrase “born again” during the 1970s as curious media members flocked to his campaign. After leaving the White House, he taught Sunday School classes to packed sanctuaries at his small congregation, Maranatha Baptist, in Plains, Ga.
As a largely unknown Georgia governor in 1976, Carter took advantage of a newly restructured nominating system by winning the Iowa caucuses and gaining the national spotlight. He went on to win the Democratic nomination and defeat President Gerald Ford in the general election.
His administration included several crises — the 1979 Iran hostage situation, among them — but also had a major victory in 1979 when Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty on the White House lawn. Carter also normalized relations with China, promoted clean energy, and deregulated the airline industry, making air travel more affordable.
After losing re-election to GOP nominee Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982 to promote freedom and democracy. As an individual, he built homes for Habitat for Humanity. Carter won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
Carter lived the longest of any president or ex-president in U.S. history, turning 100 in October of 2024.
He discussed his faith in detail in his 2018 book Faith: A Journey For All.
“I believe now, more than then, that Christians are called to plunge into the life of the world, and to inject the moral and ethical values of our faith into the processes of governing,” Carter wrote. “At the same time, there must be an absolute prohibition against granting any control by government over our religious freedoms.”
Carter grew up in church and taught Sunday School lessons when he attended the Naval Academy as a young man. He even taught Sunday School lessons as president at First Baptist Church in Washington “without any prior notification so it wouldn’t disturb the regular class,” he told theologian Albert Mohler in 2012.
“I spend several hours a week just studying the meaning of the Scriptures,” he said.
Although he was to the left of the modern evangelical movement, many evangelical leaders nevertheless appreciated Carter’s love of the Bible and his embrace of his Christian faith. Carter was to the right of the modern Democratic Party, saying in 2012, “I have never believed that Jesus Christ would approve abortion.” He never had the opportunity to nominate a justice to the Supreme Court, where abortion and many other hot-button issues are debated.
Carter shared his faith and discussed religious freedom with other heads of state, he told Mohler during the 2012 interview.
“I did this on several occasions,” Carter said. “… The most significant was when I normalized relations with People’s Republic of China in the first of January ’79. And Deng Xiaoping came over and, when we were having our final banquet, he said, ‘Mr. President, you’ve done a lot for the people in China and you’ve never asked anything for your service. Is there anything I can do for you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, when I was a child I used to give five cents a week to build hospitals and schools for those Chinese children and our number one heroes that used to come to Georgia were missionaries to China. And now you don’t permit missionaries. You don’t permit Bibles and you don’t permit freedom of worship. And I wish that you would reinstitute those three things.’ He said, ‘Let me think about it.’
“So the next morning, he told me, ‘We will not let missionaries come back in, but I promise you that we will authorize the distribution of Bibles for the first time, and we’ll also pass a law in China that permits freedom of worship.’ So they did.”
Carter grew up Southern Baptist but rejected the conservative direction it took in the late 1970s and 1980s. He told Mohler he was a supporter of the SBC’s Bold Mission Thrust, an evangelistic effort that had the goal of reaching the world with the gospel.
As president in 1978, he delivered an address to the SBC’s Brotherhood Commission, telling those gathered, “There is no conflict that prevents bringing one’s personal religious life together with the political arena.”
“You can’t divorce religious beliefs from public service,“ he said in 1978. “And at the same time, of course, in public office you cannot impose your own religious beliefs on others. I have never detected nor experienced any conflict between God’s will and my political duty.”
During his post-political life Carter taught Sunday School at his small Plains, Ga., church, where visitors and tourists often outnumbered the members. A typical Sunday School class attracted a few hundred people who would gather in the sanctuary as Carter spoke, with Secret Service agents watching intently from the side. After the church service, visitors would line up outside to get their picture with Carter.
His pastor, Rev. Tony Lowden, said in 2019, “The greatest thing I’ve learned as a pastor here is watching J.C. follow J.C.”
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Scott Cunningham/Stringer
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Listen to Michael’s Podcast! He is the host of Crosswalk Talk, a podcast where he talks with Christian movie stars, musicians, directors, and more. Hear how famous Christian figures keep their faith a priority in Hollywood and discover the best Christian movies, books, television, and other entertainment. You can find Crosswalk Talk on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an interview that will be sure to encourage your faith.
