WASHINGTON (RNS) — A broad array of religious and political leaders across the country issued outpourings of support for former President Jimmy Carter following news of his death, heaping praise on the evangelical Christian Democrat known for teaching Sunday School and being unapologetic about his faith.
Among the first to mourn the passing of Carter, who died on Sunday (Dec. 29) at age 100, was Sen. Raphael Warnock, a fellow Georgian. Warnock, who also serves as pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, recalled how Carter and his family visited Ebenezer and dined with Warnock’s family. Warnock said Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, had held his 2-month-old daughter as the group broke bread together.
“Jimmy Carter is a shining example of what it means to make your faith come alive through the noble work of public service,” Warnock said in a statement, later adding, “Well done, good and faithful servant, well done.”
President Joe Biden, a Catholic who is slated to eulogize Carter at his state funeral scheduled for Jan. 9, also lauded Carter in a statement.
“To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning — the good life — study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” the statement read, saying Carter showed that America is a great nation, “because we are a good people — decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson issued a statement praising Carter as well, saying, “No one can deny that President Carter led an extraordinary life of service to his country.”
Johnson, a Southern Baptist who often references his own religious views, did not mention Carter’s faith. Carter was also a Southern Baptist until 2000, when he left the denomination after it revised its statement of faith to insist wives submit to their husbands and banned female pastors. Well into his 90s, Carter taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, which is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
The Rev. Paul Baxley, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, lamented Carter’s death in a blog post, urging other members of the denomination to pray for Carter’s family. Baxley said Carter delivered the keynote address at the group’s General Assembly in 1993 and in 2001, after the former president joined their ranks.
“My hope is that our reflection on President Carter’s life will cause us to more deeply embrace the commitments that defined his life, not only his devotion to Christ but also to the pursuit of just peace, genuine racial justice, the faithful stewardship of creation, relentless honesty and integrity and a politics marked more by what is right than what is politically beneficial,” Baxley wrote. “In all these ways, he lived out the mission of Jesus that he also called all Baptists to embrace, namely that we join Jesus in bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight for the blind and freedom for the oppressed.”
The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, recalled that when Carter was sworn in as president in 1977, he did so by laying his hand on a Bible opened to Micah 6:8, which reads, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”
“May we follow his example of Christian service, and may his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace,” Rowe’s statement read.
Catholics also expressed support for Carter. Pope Francis celebrated his “firm commitment, motivated by deep Christian faith, to the cause of reconciliation and peace between peoples, the defense of human rights, and the welfare of the poor and those in need.”
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed hope that Carter’s “lifelong work on behalf of peace among nations will continue to serve as an inspiration for a world in need of peacemakers.”
In addition, NETWORK, a liberal-leaning Catholic social justice lobby, said Carter “embodied the ideals of public service and how people of faith can build up the common good in the public square.”
Nihad Awad, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, recalled the criticism Carter faced for his book “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid,” and described the former president as “a friend of the American Muslim community and a champion for many just causes, including Palestinian freedom.”
In a statement, the Union for Reform Judaism acknowledged that while members of the group “disagreed with some of President Carter’s later views on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” they nonetheless celebrated the Camp David accords he brokered between Israel and Egypt, calling the effort “transformational.”
“Whether wielding a hammer with Habitat for Humanity or wielding his presidential power to appoint more women to high level administration positions than any of his predecessors, Jimmy Carter’s life was one of purpose and consequence,” the statement read.
But while Carter was very public about his faith, the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a statement celebrating him for “including church-state separation and religious freedom among the important issues he championed.” Rachel Laser, head of Americans United, noted Carter “opposed religious leaders and houses of worship politicking, taxpayer funding of religious organizations (especially those that discriminate), removing evolution from school science classes, and coercing students to pray in public schools.”
Laser added that Carter warned against Christians who attempt to “implant through government our beliefs on others as superior,” and, in 2012, became the first of any current or former president to voice support for same-sex marriage.
