Jimmy Carter working on a Habitat for Humanity home-building project after a fall, age 95
Today former US president Jimmy Carter turns 100, the only president to have reached that extraordinary age. He outlived his beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn and his been in palliative care within his home since January. Apparently he wants to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris in a few weeks.
I have written about Carter several times through the years because I am a great admirer. He was a brave man, coming to Canada in 1952 as a young naval officer to help avert a nuclear disaster at a plant in Chalk River. He received so much radiation during this dangerous intervention that he figured he would never father children -- they had four.
When elected as governor of Georgia he made a commitment to end racial segregation.
He worked toward peace in the Middle East during and after his presidency. He was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, an award he deserved far more than President Barack Obama seven years later (I am also a fan of Obama). His 2007 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid was controversial because of the perception that he place too much blame on Israel.
Sadat, Carter, and Begin
Jimmy and Rosalynn were long-time advocates for gender equality and he wrote a book on this subject as well.
The world’s discrimination and violence against women and girls is the most serious, pervasive, and ignored violation of basic human rights.
President Carter “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power”
Carter has cared deeply about the environment and as president had solar panels installed on the White House, only to have them removed by his successor, Ronald Reagan.
Jimmy Carter has a sustaining faith and is arguably the most openly Christian president in America's history. Not only has be been a regular church attender, he taught Sunday School for decades in his Baptist congregation. He eventually left the Southern Baptist Convention because of the denomination's entrenched views on women:
I’m familiar with the verses they have quoted about wives being subjugated to their husbands. In my opinion, this is a distortion of the meaning of Scripture. … I personally feel the Bible says all people are equal in the eyes of God. I personally feel that women should play an absolutely equal role in service of Christ in the church.
I find it appalling that many conservative Christians in the United States have great disdain for Carter, viewing him as an ineffective president. At the same time they idolize a certain former president and current candidate who is the antithesis of the Christ-like life and passionate about nothing other than himself.
Happy birthday to President Jimmy Carter and thank God for his enduring witness. Hang in there until the election!
Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter on their wedding day
4 comments:
I have had the pleasure of hearing him speak at 2 different times. Both times I wished he could have spoken for 2 more hours. He was a spellbinding speaker. It amazes, saddens and makes me angry that so many people are following the orange hair dummy. How they can is beyond my thinking.
Big fan of Jimmy Carter. He packed so much into his life, and I've read one of his books about the Middle East and thought it was excellent and thought-provoking.
Yes, hang in Jimmy and vote against the orange buffoon. The garbage this man spouts is infuriating, and the fact that so many Americans support him is a real head-scratcher.
I watch Jimmy Kimmel's opening monologues on YT each day just because he despises Trump and doesn't hold back on his remarks. It's food for my soul.
Jimmy Carter is a gem !
Hearing Carter in person must have been a wonderful experience, Laurie. It appears we are all agreed that he was and is an exceptional human being and the Orange Menace is not!
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