An Evangelical Democrat Among the Christian Right: Jimmy Carter, Faith, and Unity

Jimmy Carter showed that faith, rather than upending family dinners or getting twisted into campaign weaponry, can bring nations together and stop war.

That’s his true legacy. 

Evangelical Christian faith, now identified primarily with conservative Republicans, propelled Carter, a Democrat from Plains, Georgia, to the White House. 

Carter defies the current stereotypes because he lived out one of the most devout — and complex — faiths of any public leader I've met or researched as a scholar of religion.

He viewed himself as seeking to follow in Jesus’s footsteps. His Nobel prize acceptance speech was essentially a statement of his Christian faith. 

At the same time, Carter was a political realist who understood the difference between faith enacted in the private realm and faith in the public sphere, which required an emphasis on justice and the countervailing forces of power. 

The ultimate goal of politics in an imperfect, sinful world is to approximate justice, he said during a conversation we had four years ago. The ultimate goal of religion is to love and care for other people. It’s difficult, he said, to always rely on love, and doing so in politics can be naive. 

He was a former Naval officer who navigated crises on a nuclear submarine yet spoke about peacemaking and an unwillingness to use force. When I interviewed him at the Carter Center, he pointed proudly to the fact that his Presidency accounted for a quarter of the precious 16 total years of peace in the 247-year history of the United States.

His critics spun that conviction as weakness rather than strength. He believed in resilient, moral leadership, in making decisions because they were the right thing to do, however inexpedient.

His faith undergirded the integrity that made him an unusual presence in the American political system. That was never more true than in 1978 when he negotiated the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. 

Once again, peace stood front and center.

Over 13 frenzied days of negotiations in the Maryland mountains, Carter helped break down the deep distrust between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In our conversation, Carter was proud of how his faith — and the shared elements of faith with Sadat, a Muslim, and Begin, a Jew — allowed him to build the relationships to reach that agreement. 

Instead of focusing on politics or the military, the trio of world leaders talked about their core commitments, discerning from their respective religions guidance to treat those they represented as equals before God. Their faith called them to value peace. 

And they secured it. 

Carter’s faith fueled hope, even after he lost the 1980 election and, more recently, witnessed the world’s longest lasting democracy face unprecedented polarization. Jimmy Carter remained hopeful. He saw opportunity if America could tackle its deepest problems.

The term “Evangelical” derives from a Greek word that means “good news.” In Carter’s view, Evangelical faith applied in politics meant that strength still lies in peace and that faith still can build the trust to cross chasms and to better the globe.