POLICY
Policy

Policy and Faith: Jimmy Carter was America’s Evangelical-in-Chief His foreign-policy achievements were vast—and inseparable from his Christian faith.

Living faithfully in faith, and upholding the Word of God does not stop you from fulfilling life's calling in other areas; Jimmy Carter, served as America's 39th president from 1977 to 1981 and has been named "America’s Evangelical-in-Chief" whose time in service and Christian faith were inseparable.

Foreign policy reported Carter insisted that his understanding of human rights had been informed by his reading of the Hebrew prophets. “I have been steeped in the Bible since childhood,” he said in a speech to the World Jewish Congress, which emphasized “the idea of the dignity of the individual human being and also of the individual conscience; the idea of service to the poor and to the oppressed.”

Carter’s acceptance speech reaffirmed the religious values that undergirded his approach to governing and foreign policy. “I worship Jesus Christ, whom we Christians consider to be the Prince of Peace,” he said, adding that “Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and others can embrace each other in a common effort to alleviate human suffering and to espouse peace.” War may be necessary at times, Carter said, but it is invariably evil. “We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”

A larger influence on the president, however, was his evangelical faith. Carter’s declaration that he was a born-again Christian had provoked incredulity from the national press corps, but the statement resonated with many Americans, including evangelicals themselves, who looked for integrity in the White House following the scandals of former U.S. President Richard Nixon’s administration. Carter, a Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher, fit the bill.

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