We always remember our first experiences. 1976 was my first experience to cast a ballot for the president of the United States. James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. (1924- 2024), an engineer, a former naval officer, a humble peanut farmer, and a born-again Christian, was a welcome candidate after the disgraceful fall and resignation of President Richard M. Nixon for the lying and covering-up of the Watergate scandal. Gerald R. Ford, who pardoned Nixon, became president, the only person neither elected for presidency nor vice presidency. Carter got my vote when he told the American people, “I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me.”

Jimmy the Baptist

Carter grew up as a Southern Baptist and was the first U. S. president to announce unabashedly he was a “born again” Christian. He proselytized his ideas with folksinger Bob Dylan and with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat in the Camp David Accords in 1978 in brokering peace.

In 1976, Carter owed his presidential victory to White evangelical Christian voters. They lauded Carter because he didn’t play down but lived out loud his meaning of being a born-again Christian entering American politics. During his presidential run, Carter unapologetically told the New York Times, “If there are those who don’t want to vote for me because I’m a deeply committed Christian, I believe they should vote for someone else.”

Carter taught Sunday School for decades, and Carter’s favorite Bible verse was from Micah 6:8. “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” He lived by it!

Carter upheld the total separation of church and state. He opposed public money and tax exemptions for religious schools and institutions. He discontinued the tradition of inviting evangelicals to conduct White House prayer services, a once cozy niche for prominent evangelicals like Rev. Billy Graham, whom he admired.

However, if Jimmy Carter were running for president today, they would consider him a heretic and excommunicate him for his stance on Christian nationalism, white supremacy, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, Palestine, and interpretation of scripture, among others.

Son of a segregationist

Carter, a Georgian like many of the civil rights leaders of the era, wasn’t involved in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, never confronted his father’s pro-Confederate views nor his denomination’s support of slavery, nor met with MLK. “Carter never did anything racist himself. But he didn’t participate,” Carter’s biographer Jonathan Alter told AP News. “And King was right there.” However, to the shock of his white evangelical base and the awe of the black voters, Carter, at his inauguration, issued an edict: “The time for racial discrimination is over.”

Carter appointed the first Black woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet and the first Black, Andrew Young, an icon of the Civil Rights Movement, as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He also formed a relationship with King’s family.

LGBTQ+ Ally

During Carter’s administration, he was concerned about LGBTQ+ issues, like employment discrimination. After his presidency, he advocated abolishing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

As an honest man, Carter was candid about his struggle with marriage equality. But he leaned into his faith to guide him. In 2005, an Advocate reporter asked him why he had no problem with gays and lesbians like many Christians. “I’m a worshipper of Jesus Christ, who never mentioned homosexuals in any way - certainly not in a deleterious fashion,” Carter replied.

In 2015, at the SCOTUS’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, Carter publicly gave a shoutout of approval.

“I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else,” he told HuffPost Live. “I believe Jesus would approve of gay marriage.”

Walked the talk

Faith was foundational to Carter’s politics. However, his faith-driven public service bloomed after his presidency; he became the quintessential statesman and the nation’s greatest ex-president. Like many Americans, I hold Carter in high regard. I liked his calm demeanor and balanced approach in difficult conversations and heated debates. He was not an alarmist but a measured man, thoughtful in his actions and responses. I admired the type of man he walked in the world.

I’m glad President Jimmy Carter was my first.

May he rest in peace.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

member and Columnist, The Reverend

Irene Monroe is an ordained minister,

motivational speaker and she speaks for

a sector of society that is frequently

invisible. Rev. Monroe does a weekly

Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on

WGBH (89.7 FM), on Boston Public Radio

and a weekly Friday segment “The Take”

on New England Channel NEWS (NECN).

She’s a Huffington Post blogger and a

syndicated religion columnist. Her

columns appear in cities across the

country and in the U.K, and Canada. Also

she writes a column in the Boston home

LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows and

Cambridge Chronicle. A native of

Brooklyn, NY, Rev. Monroe graduated

from Wellesley College and Union

Theological Seminary at Columbia

University, and served as a pastor at an

African-American church in New Jersey

before coming to Harvard Divinity School

to do her doctorate. She has received the

Harvard University Certificate of

Distinction in Teaching several times

while being the head teaching fellow of

the Rev. Peter Gomes, the Pusey Minister

in the Memorial Church at Harvard who is

the author of the best seller, THE GOOD

BOOK. She appears in the film For the

Bible Tells Me So and was profiled in the

Gay Pride episode of In the Life, an

Emmy-nominated segment. Monroe’s

coming out story is profiled in “CRISIS:

40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social,

and Religious Pain and Trauma of

Growing up Gay in America" and in

"Youth in Crisis." In 1997 Boston

Magazine cited her as one of Boston's 50

Most Intriguing Women, and was profiled

twice in the Boston Globe, In the Living

Arts and The Spiritual Life sections for

her LGBT activism. Her papers are at the

Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College's

research library on the history of women

in America. Her website is

irenemonroe.com. Contact the Rev.

Monroe and BC.