Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama honored Jimmy Carter in the most perfect way possible.
The Obamas said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:
For decades, you could walk into Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia on a Sunday morning and see hundreds of tourists from all over the world packed into the seats. And as President Jimmy Carter stands before them, winking and asking if they have any visitors this morning, he prepares to teach Sunday school, just as he has for most of his adult life. Probably.
Some of those who came to hear him speak were no doubt there to see what President Carter accomplished during his four years in the White House: the Camp David Accords that he brokered and reshaped the Middle East. Some people were there. the work he did to diversify the federal judiciary, including appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pioneering women’s rights activist and attorney, to the federal bench; He became one of the world’s first leaders to implement environmental reforms and recognize the problem of climate change.
Others were probably there because President Carter accomplished the feat of overseeing more than 100 elections around the world during the longest and most influential presidential term in U.S. history. It helped virtually eliminate Guinea worm disease, an infectious disease that had plagued Africa for centuries. He is the only former president to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And, along with his beloved Rosalyn, he has built and repaired thousands of homes in more than a dozen countries as part of Habitat for Humanity.
But I’d wager that the reason so many people showed up to that church on Sunday morning was, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.
Jimmy Carter, elected in the shadow of Watergate, promised voters he would always tell the truth. And he advocated a public interest, but the results were abhorrent. He believed there were more important things than re-election, such as integrity, respect, and compassion. Because Jimmy Carter believed as deeply as he believed that we were all created in the image of God.
Every time I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he was not just professing these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, President Carter said, “God has given us the ability to choose.” We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. He made that choice over and over again over 100 years, and the world became a better place.
Maranatha Baptist Church may be a little quieter on Sundays, but President Carter will never be far away. He is buried with Rosalyn next to a willow tree by the road, and his memory calls us all to pay attention to our better angels. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to the Carter family and all those who loved and learned from this wonderful man.
Jimmy Carter is a man who used the platform provided by serving as president to make the world a better place. Jimmy Carter embodied his beliefs and values. Many people have faith and beliefs, but the difficulty is in embodying those beliefs in everyday life.
Former President Carter did just that, and his death leaves a hole in the fabric of decency in our world that will never be fully filled.
