BREAKING: Former US President Jimmy Carter Dead at 100
Foreignpolicy.com referred to Jimmy Carter as “America’s Evangelical-in-Chief.” The New York Times’ Garry Willis wrote a story in 2018 titled “The Pious Presidency of Jimmy Carter.”
It’s those types of polarizing attitudes from his fellow Americans that characterized the presidency and the life of James Earl Carter Jr., the nation’s 39th president—you either loved him or you hated him.
Carter, who led the country from 1977 to 1980, died Dec. 29 at his home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100, his office confirmed. No cause of death was listed. He entered hospice care in February 2023, nearly two years before his death. He and his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023 at age 96, spent most of their lives in Plains.
While many question his success as the leader of the free world, he made it known throughout his life that his faith is what saw him through—good times and bad. He said in his book, “Faith: A Journey For All.”
It is through God and His Son that I strive to understand the world in which we live. … God is not my personal valet. God does not build a protective fence around my life, keep me from trouble, fulfill my personal desires, or guarantee my success. However, through prayer God offers me comfort, reassurance, satisfaction, courage, hope, and peace.
Carter continued to espouse many Christlike characteristics throughout his life, writing:
Those Christians who resist the inclination toward fundamentalism and who follow the nature, actions, and words of Jesus Christ should consider people who are different from us to be worthy of our care, generosity, forgiveness, compassion, and unselfish love. … To summarize, there are three words that characterize this brand of fundamentalism: pride, domination, and exclusion. In sharp contrast, Jesus espoused humility, servanthood of leaders, and breaking down walls between people.
Carter once said he didn’t think Jesus would approve of abortion except “in the case of incest, rape or the mother’s life in danger.” However, he added, “I had to enforce the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, so I tried to do everything I could to minimize the need for abortions.”
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Still, many considered him a liberal Democrat, especially with quotes like the following:
Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things—he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.
Here are some more quotes from Carter about his faith:
My faith demands—and this is not optional—my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.
He explains the true character of the god of love and reassures us that ultimate power on the earth will be good, not evil. It is through God and His Son that I strive to understand the world in which we live.
I believe that we are given an order by Jesus. One of the last things he did was to spread the Word of God and he being the basis for our salvation. Christians are supposed to be evangelicals, and I am.
We believe that the first time we’re born as children, it’s human life given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it’s new life. That’s what ‘born again’ means.
A Christian should know that God is a Creator, that God is an entity that is all powerful and all-knowledgeable. God is everywhere and God is an entity filled with grace, love, compassion and forgiveness, that Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus came to earth to explain to people in a very revolutionary way the nature of God, that God was not a stern judge who was keeping track of 600 or so rules and regulations that you had to keep in order to be acceptable of God.
Public Office and Accomplishments
In 1976, Carter ran for the presidency of the United States as a virtual unknown, having only served an office as high as the governorship of Georgia. That year, many Americans asked the question, “Jimmy who?” when it came election time that year. Considering he was running against Gerald Ford, a remnant from the Richard Nixon administration, his chances were good for winning the nation’s highest office. People were clamoring for change in the White House shortly after “Tricky Dick’s” administration.
Carter won the election with 55.2% of the electoral vote compared to 44.6% for Ford. He won the popular vote by a slim margin of 50.1% to 48% percent.
Still, the American people wondered how a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, would be able to lead their country.
On his second day in office in January 1977, Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders—an action that again polarized the country. He also created a national energy policy that included conservation, price control and new technology.
He helped successfully pursue the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties and the second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
Perhaps his most famous accomplishment was the Camp David Accords, a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978. This came after 12 days of secret meetings between Carter and the two Middle Eastern leaders at Camp David.
Unfortunately, Carter’s presidency was tarnished by the Iran Hostage Crisis, which saw the kidnapping of 52 U.S. diplomats and citizens on Nov. 4, 1979, at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The hostages were held for 444 days during Carter’s presidency, and they were released on Jan. 20, 1981, the same day incoming President Ronald Reagan assumed office.
Carter’s presidency also endured the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Soviet Union’s Invasion of Afghanistan. The cold war escalated as a result of the latter, and he led the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
He was the first U.S. president to live to 100 or older and the only one to see the 40th anniversary of his inauguration. Over the past several years, he survived multiple falls, cancer and other illnesses.
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