One of the things that has bothered me most about Donald Trump’s reelection is that it conveys the message that lying, cheating, and demeaning other people pays off. Children learn that bullies with enough money can buy their way into our country’s highest office not once, but twice. I was already contemplating a post under this title, and with former president Jimmy Carter’s death on December 29 at age 100, the title—and topic—seem even more appropriate.
Carter was elected to the presidency in 1976 promising to return honesty and decency in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate, when many Americans had a cynical view of government. While in office, he centered foreign policy on human rights rather than American dominance. He brokered a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt which still provides what stability there is in the Middle East.
Just four months into office, Carter addressed the energy crisis, calling on Americans to practice conservation and begin the necessary transition to renewable fuels. He installed solar panels on the White House (Ronald Reagan took them down.) He took positions and actions that he considered the right thing to do, even if they were politically unpopular.
Carter lost reelection in large part because of the energy crisis, a stagnant economy, and Iran’s refusal to release 52 hostages. Assessments of his presidency vary, but he is universally admired for his 44 years of life after leaving office. At all times, his life was guided by his Christian faith.
The first born-again Christian elected president, Carter was not just a Washington outsider, but he stood outside the Evangelical movement that would ally itself with Republican politics and help sweep Trump into office twice. Carter is more progressive on issues such as racism and LGBTQ rights. He sought office in order to serve his country, whereas the Christian Right seeks the power to impose their beliefs on others.
Citing separation of church and state, Pres. Carter attended a Baptist church in Washington, DC, but never held religious services in the White House. In cases where his personal beliefs conflicted with the law, such as legalized abortion, he upheld the law because he had taken an oath of office before God to do so.1 After returning to Georgia, he taught Sunday School whenever he was in town.
Moral comparison with Trump is stark. Seeking to avoid any conflict of interest, Carter put his family’s peanut farm in a blind trust while he was president, only to learn that it was $1 million in debt when he left office. Trump made $2.4 billion from his ongoing business interests during his first term.
Carter called his 77-year marriage to his wife Rosalynn the best thing he ever did and the pinnacle of his life. They were full partners in life and in their humanitarian efforts. Trump has been married three times and has a string of reported affairs. He admitted on tape to “grabbing women by the pussy,” has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, and was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.
In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter named “the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth” as our greatest challenge and the root of such unresolved problems as starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation, violent conflict, and preventable disease. Thanks to policies enacted by Ronald Reagan and other Republicans, the rich continue to grow even richer. Under the influence of crony-in-chief Elon Musk, the second Trump administration seems poised to undo even more policies that would limit their ability to increase wealth.
In retirement, Carter led a life that accords with scripture. He and Rosalynn participated in work teams to build homes through Habitat for Humanity into their 90s. They founded the Carter Center to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope. He did not achieve his dream of outliving the last Guinea worm, but through the Carter Center, deaths from the parasite dropped from 3.5 million per year to just 13 cases in 2022. Trump spent his four years out of office claiming falsely that he had won, fending off lawsuits, and punishing political adversaries.
As we prepare to inaugurate a president who serves only himself, we celebrate the long life of a man who served God, his country, and other people, especially those on the margins. His legacy can inspire us when hope seems dim and can serve as a model of decency, integrity, and honor at a time when such qualities seem to be on the decline.
No doubt, President Jimmy Carter was true to his Anabaptist roots, being himself a deeply committed Christian and yet a firm believer in the separation of church and state. Juxtapose that with Donald Trump who would have never won either of his two successful bids for the presidency had it not been for evangelical Christians who, to this day, downplay and, at times, normalize his criminal and immoral behavior. More than a few equivocate on the “character issue” because they see him as a King Cyrus figure, a pagan monarch, of sorts, who will “restore” America as the “Christian nation” it never was.
I suspect a Trump 2.0 presidency will seek to weaken, if not destroy, democratic institutions that allow for us to self-correct via checks and balances. A large number of American Christians, because of their complicity, will continue to undermine trust in the church as an ethical institution. May Jimmy Carter serve to inspire us to keep at the good fight for kindness and decency even when, by doing so, such virtue is openly mocked. While no good deed goes unpunished, great lives committed to the kinds of good deeds that President Carter embodied will never go unnoticed.