“Don’t Call Him Evangelical — How to Remember Jimmy Carter’s Faith, And How Not To” was the title of the article in my email inbox. As a native Georgian, cradle roll Baptist and proud former partner in President Carter’s work…
Guthas became the first female pastor at Jimmy Carter’s church
Ashley Guthas wasn’t angling to become Jimmy Carter’s pastor. Yet she became another part of history when she was called as pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. — a church where the former president and his wife, Rosalynn,…
‘He’s gone, but he ain’t gone far’
President Jimmy Carter died Dec. 29, 2024, at the age of 100. For the American nation, his death could not have come at a more teachable moment given that the proceedings of his state funeral occurred barely two weeks before…
Stubborn frugality vs. willful extravagance
On Saturday, Jan. 4, former President Jimmy Carter’s body made the final journey from his home in Plains, Ga., to the Carter Center in Atlanta, where he had been so many times since its establishment 42 years ago. The remains…
‘He taught the Bible every Sunday from World War II to COVID’
Joshua Carter, grandson of President Jimmy Carter, was among the speakers at the state funeral for the former president held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Jan. 9. Here is a verbatim transcript of his comments. My grandfather…
‘He’s only the governor of Georgia …’
I stood at the front of the press corps on the White House lawn on Oct. 6, 1979, as President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter emerged from the front door to greet Pope John Paul II, who had…
Jimmy Carter and ‘the way things are’
Editor’s note: This column was published March 2, 2023, in the Pine Belt News of Hattiesburg, Miss., and is republished here with slight edits to fit the remembrance of Jimmy Carter. In Jimmy Carter’s boyhood autobiography, An Hour Before…
Dockery, Haggray and Baxley among those remembering Jimmy Carter warmly
For the most part, Baptist leaders in the United States heaped praise on former U.S. President Jimmy Carter after his Dec. 29 death at age 100. Apart from Al Mohler, a Southern Baptist Convention seminary president who accused Carter of…
Jimmy Carter and the strength of fields
I’m thinking about the late poet James Dickey tonight as I reflect upon Jimmy Carter’s impact on my life. Dickey became famous for his terrifying 1970 novel Deliverance, about four suburban weekend warriors from Atlanta (Dickey’s hometown and mine) who…
Jimmy Carter was the most decent and respectable president of my lifetime
Heather Cox Richardson’s assessment about the life and career of President Jimmy Carter is commendable, yet incomplete. Richardson failed to mention that it was President Carter who led the transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama….
Mohler accuses Jimmy Carter of international crimes
One day after Jimmy Carter’s death, a prominent Southern Baptist theologian accused him of unspecified international crimes. Meanwhile, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Clint Pressley, offered a one-sentence summation of Carter’s death at age 100: “A remarkable man…
Jimmy Carter, a lifelong Baptist, left a legacy of faithfulness, compassion and justice
Baptist leaders are remembering President Jimmy Carter as a Christian example of faithfulness, compassion and justice — and as a staunch advocate of a traditional view of religious liberty. Carter, the nation’s 39th president, died Dec. 29 at age 100….