Perhaps more than any other modern president, Jimmy Carter identified himself very publicly and explicitly as a person guided by faith. At the same time, he was also a consistent defender of healthy boundaries between government and religion, who made clear that he would never allow his personal faith to dictate or interfere with the public interest.President Carter lived out the values he espoused, both in office and for decades afterwards. He was clear in his belief that respecting differences – including religious differences – was the way to live into his values, and these interview excerpts make that abundantly clear.
In conversations with Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of The State of Belief, who was editor of the Huffington Post Religion section at the time, the former president addressed challenging issues, including homosexuality. Jimmy Carter also welcomed the late Rev. Welton Gaddy to his presidential library in Atlanta in 2018, for an in-depth interview in connection with his then-new book, Faith: A Journey for All. He shared the role of prayer in his time in the White House, and his deep optimism about the resilience of America and our ability to overcome challenges.