🇺🇸 ‘Good And Faithful Servant’: 7 Takeaways From Jimmy Carter’s Funeral 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
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(ANALYSIS) When Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as America’s 39th president in January 1977, Amy Carter, his only daughter, was a 9-year-old elementary school student.
So, coincidentally, was I.
As a third grader, I wrote my first letter to the White House, congratulating Carter on winning the election but pledging my allegiance to Gerald Ford. I had supported Ford in mock voting at my school.
What did I like about Ford? All these years later, I don’t recall.
President JImmy Carter waves atop the steps of Air Force One before departing to Los Angeles to speak to the United Auto Workers convention on May 17, 1977. (Photo courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library)
I received a response from the White House, which I was sure Carter signed himself, thanking me for my interest in the nation’s affairs. You can bet I supported Carter when he faced Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.
Not until decades later, after I became a religion journalist and reported on Carter’s friction with the Southern Baptist Convention, did I become familiar with the former president’s strong faith and its role in his life.
At Thursday’s two-hour state funeral for Carter — who died Dec. 29 at age 100 — speaker after speaker referenced the humble Georgia peanut farmer’s commitment to God.
Here are seven faith-related takeaways from the service at the Washington National Cathedral:
1. Carter became “the world’s most famous Sunday school teacher.”
Joshua Carter, one of the former president’s 11 grandchildren, reflected on that legacy as he addressed a crowd that included President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
“My grandfather started teaching Sunday school when he was a midshipman at the Naval Academy,” Joshua Carter said. “He taught the Bible every Sunday from World War II to COVID.”
For all his travels, the grandson emphasized, the former president structured his life so he could be home on Sundays to teach at the Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
“It was central to his life,” Joshua Carter said. “Every time I went to church with him, it was packed. The line started before sunrise, and I was always very thankful that I got to walk in with my grandmother.”
Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy’s wife of 77 years, died Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at this note: “When my grandfather won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Sunday school class learned first.”
2. “God did a good thing when he made your dad.”
That’s what Steven Ford said to Jimmy Carter’s grieving children: Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy.
Ford, son of former President Gerald Ford, read a eulogy for Carter that his father wrote before his Dec. 26, 2006, death at age 96.
The former political rivals, who later became close friends, each penned a eulogy for each other. (I knew there was something I liked about Gerald Ford.)
“Now, Jimmy learned early on that it was not enough merely to bear witness in a pew on Sunday morning,” Steven Ford said, sharing his father’s words. “Inspired by his faith, he pursued brotherhood across boundaries of nationhood, across boundaries of tradition, across boundaries of caste, in America's urban neighborhoods and in rural villages around the world. He reminded us that Christ had been a carpenter.”
Later in the eulogy, Gerald Ford wrote: “Now, of course, not all of Jimmy’s time was spent building houses, eradicating disease, brokering cease fires, monitoring elections. While Jimmy is probably the only former president to conduct a weekly Bible class, I know for certain he is the only former president to perform a duet of ‘On The Road Again’ with Willie Nelson.
“Georgia wasn’t just on Jimmy’s mind. It was in his blood. However far he traveled, he never forgot where he came home to or where now, in the end, he would finally come home to.”
3. Faith connected Carter and his vice president, Walter Mondale.
“I think one of the realities was that Carter was a devout Christian who grew up, as we know, in a small town and was active in his faith for almost every moment of his life,” the late Mondale said in a eulogy prepared before his April 19, 2021, death at age 93.
Ted Mondale, the former vice president’s son, shared his father’s words at Carter’s service:
“I was also a small-town kid, and I grew up in our small Methodist church where my Dad was the preacher and our faith was very basic to me as Carter's faith was to him,” wrote Walter Mondale, who lost the 1984 election to Reagan. “That created a bond between us that allowed us to understand each other and to find ways to work together because of our common commitment to our faith.”
4. Carter’s religious values “gave him an unshakeable sense of right and wrong, animating his support for civil rights at home and human rights abroad and propelling him to major achievements.”
So proclaimed former White House adviser Stuart Eizenstat in a tribute to Carter.
“His faith brought integrity to the presidency after the Watergate and Vietnam eras,” Eizenstat declared.
Carter promised never to lie to Eizenstat — and fulfilled that vow, his former adviser said.
“Jimmy Carter has earned his place in heaven,” Eizenstat said, drawing laughter when he added: “But just as he was free with sometimes unsolicited advice for his presidential successors, the Lord of all creation should be ready for Jimmy’s recommendations on how to make God’s realm a more peaceful place.”
5. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”
President Carter quoted that Scripture from Micah 6:8 in his January 1977 inaugural address.
Both Jason Carter, the former president's grandson and chairman of the nonprofit Carter Center, and Biden invoked the same verse at Thursday’s service.
“Maybe this is unbelievable to you, but in my 49 years, I never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one,” Jason Carter said of his grandfather. “He was the same person, no matter who he was with or where he was. And for me, that’s the definition of integrity.
“That honesty was matched by love,” the grandson added. “It was matched by faith. And in both public and private, my grandparents did fundamentally live their lives in an effort, as the Bible says, to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with their God.”
Biden echoed that sentiment: “Jimmy Carter did justly, loved mercy, walked humbly. May God bless a great American, a dear friend and a good man.”
6. Carter rose from a poor upbringing — living in a house with no running water or electricity — to the pinnacles of power.
Along the way, Carter focused on making real the words of his Savior, said the current president, who is Catholic.
Carter “showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works,” Biden added, “and a good and faithful servant of God and of the people.”
7. Carter’s sensitivity and spirituality made him a great president, as the Rev. Andrew Young sees it.
Carter “never ceased to embrace those of us who had grown up in all kinds of conflict,” said the civil rights leader, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and two terms as Atlanta’s mayor.
“Carter was truly a child of God, not only a good farmer,” said Young, an ordained Congregational Church minister who wore a black clerical robe adorned with two red crosses. He sat beside Carter’s flag-draped coffin at the front of the cathedral and, unlike others who presented eulogies, spoke without notes.
“At the same time he was working on a nuclear Navy, he was thinking of peace on earth and goodwill toward all men and especially women and children. … I never cease to be inspired by the little deeds of love and mercy that he shared with us every day of his life.”
The funeral began with the U.S. Coast Guard playing “Hail to the Chief” as the former president’s casket was removed from the hearse.
It ended with chorus members singing “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” — a fitting benediction for Carter.
Inside The Godbeat
Congrats to Adelle M. Banks on reaching a milestone — yet another one! — in her illustrious career.
Banks is celebrating 30 years with Religion News Service.
“I remain grateful for sources who have answered my questions, editors who have edited my copy, and people who have read my stories on one of journalism’s most fascinating beats,” she said on social media.
The Final Plug
After 128 years of faithful service, the end came suddenly for the little country church where my father preached for the last 23 years.
I wrote a column about the past, present and future — through its legacy that will endure — of the North Texas congregation.
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.