Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States of America, has died at the age of 100 years. He came from Georgia, where he had been a peanut farmer, and became the State Governor. He served one term as President from 1977-1981 following the dark days of the Watergate scandal. Political observers, who look only at the apparent “achievements” of a presidency, saw him as being unsuccessful. However, what stands out about former President Jimmy Carter is the kind of man he was.
Jimmy Carter was a Christian and a good man. At his inauguration he took the oath of office on the Bible his mother had given him as a young man. He quoted the prophet Micah, Chapter 6, verse 8 which says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” On his first day in office, President Carter announced that one of his priorities was to work for peace in the Middle East because he took Jesus’ words seriously: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
He believed the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948 fulfilled Bible prophecies, but he also believed peace in the region would only come with establishing an independent Palestine. He invited both the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin to meet with him at Camp David and appealed to both men to consider their grandchildren and the world they would inherit. The Camp David Accords were signed in September 1978 and President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. President Carter was himself awarded his Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. During the award ceremony, he said, “I worship Jesus Christ, who we Christians consider the Prince of Peace.” He acknowledged that war may sometimes be necessary but is always evil. He said, “We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”
Jimmy Carter was one of the most successful former presidents in United States history. He founded the Carter Centre in Atlanta that worked on peace-making and human rights. The Centre team also worked on the elimination of six preventable diseases, such as river blindness and the eradication of Guinea worm disease. He and his wife Rosalynn were also associated with Habitat for Humanity. Over 35 years they helped build 4390 homes for poor families in 14 nations as he worked with his own hammer and tool belt.
Jimmy Carter’s Christian faith was deeply personal. He said, “Jesus Christ is a person and to me a constant companion.” He believed Christians are called to plunge into the life of the world and to inject the ethical values of the Christian faith into the process of governing. On his 100th birthday The Times newspaper editorial expressed warm appreciate of a man to whom honesty, principle and Christian love mattered.