On December 29, the day former president Jimmy Carter died, sitting president Joe Biden ordered all U.S. states to lower their flags to half-staff for thirty days in accordance with the country’s flag code. Here is USA Today: On Inauguration Day […]
Jimmy Carter
Why Jimmy Carter chose “Imagine”: two views
During his state funeral last week, Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks sung the John Lennon song “Imagine.” Why would Carter pick a song that begins: Imagine there’s no heavenIt’s easy if you tryNo hell below usAbove us, only sky Imagine […]
Jimmy Carter’s Farewell Address: Nuclear disarmament, environmental stewardship, and human rights
January 14, 1981: Read it here.
Jimmy Carter’s “life was a testament to the goodness of God”
Here is Jimmy Carter’s grandson Jason Carter today at the former president’s memorial service: I was struck by three things during the service There was a different kind of “power” on display here. Watch the recessional here: Until the very […]
Russell Moore on Jimmy Carter’s salvation
Back In December, a podcaster asked Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, if Jimmy Carter was a “born-again Christian.” Jimmy Carter always said he was a born-again Christian, but the podcaster’s question seemed to […]
Jimmy Carter at Washington D.C.’s First Baptist Church
Over the weekend I watched a 2023 C-SPAN piece on Jimmy Carter’s relationship with the First Baptist Church in Washington D.C. The Carters arrived at First Baptist on the Sunday after his inauguration and immediately applied for membership. The C-SPAN […]
Evangelicals respond to the death of Jimmy Carter
He was the first “born again” president and he was elected during Newsweek magazine’s “Year of the Evangelical.” So what are evangelicals saying about the recent death of Jimmy Carter? Christianity Today is running an obituary by historian David Swartz. […]
Kai Bird: “Mr. Carter remains the most misunderstood president of the last century.”
We included this article/post in our recent Jimmy Carter/The Way of Improvement Leads Home roundup, but I reread it this morning and thought it was worth reposting. Here is Carter biographer Kai Bird’s February 2023 New York Times piece: Mr. […]
Carter: “I come here speaking to you today about your subject with a base for my information founded on Reinhold Niebuhr and Bob Dylan.”
This morning I read Randall Balmer’s piece at Politico, “Jimmy Carter: The Last Progressive Evangelical.” Here is the part of Balmer’s article that focuses on Carter’s 1974 Law Day address at the University of Georgia: One of the venerable traditions […]
Greg Abbott sends his condolences to Rosalynn Carter
Yes, you read that correctly. Here is the Texas governor’s official statement on the death of Jimmy Carter: “Cecilia and I mourn the loss of former President Jimmy Carter alongside millions of Americans across the country. Our nation remains the […]
Eric Miller on Christopher Lasch and the Carter “malaise” speech
Yesterday, upon hearing of the death of Jimmy Carter, I posted his July 15, 1979 “Crisis of Confidence” speech (also known as the “malaise” speech). In his award winning book Hope in a Scattering Time: A Life of Christopher Lasch, […]
Jimmy Carter at Messiah College
On February 18, 1986, Jimmy Carter visited Messiah College as the inaugural speaker for the college’s Religion and Society Lecture series. Here is a taste of Randy Frame’s coverage of the lecture at Christianity Today: Last month, Messiah College in […]
Jimmy Carter at The Way of Improvement Leads Home
We’ve spent considerable time covering Jimmy Carter over the years here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Albert Mohler “hopes and prays” that Jimmy Carter is saved (December 19, 2024) Happy 100th anniversary Jimmy Carter! (October 1, 2024) […]
Jimmy Carter: “…owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning”
In his famous July 15, 1979 “Crisis of Confidence” speech (often referred to as the “malaise speech”), Jimmy Carter said: In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many […]
Albert Mohler “hopes and prays” that Jimmy Carter is saved
I don’t have two hours and forty minutes to listen to Sean DeMars’s interview with Albert Mohler, so I am glad that Mark Wingfield did. Here are a few snippets of his piece at Baptist News Global: Toward the end […]
Jimmy Carter’s Evangelical Faith
Today Jimmy Carter became the first former US president to reach his 100th birthday. As a former president, Nobel Peace Prize winner, international human rights advocate, and author of dozens of books, Carter is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished […]
Happy 100th birthday Jimmy Carter!
The Challenges of Assessing Presidential Candidates’ Character
Evangelicals in 1976 wanted to vote for the candidate with the most integrity, but could not agree who that was.
Jimmy Carter approaches 16 months in hospice care
Here is Meghan Overdeep at Southern Living: As Jimmy Carter nears his 16th month in hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, his grandson, Jason Carter, says there’s “really been no change” in the former president’s condition. Jason, 48, the oldest of […]
A very busy Martin Luther King Jr. Day
I can’t remember such a busy–at least in terms of news–January 15th. I’m on a research trip in a southern city that is treating a few inches of snow as if it was some kind of natural disaster, so it […]