{"id":35137,"date":"2023-10-05T01:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=35137"},"modified":"2023-10-07T14:11:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T14:11:18","slug":"the-splendid-life-of-jimmy-carter-5-essential-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-splendid-life-of-jimmy-carter-5-essential-reads\/","title":{"rendered":"The splendid life of Jimmy Carter \u2013 5 essential\u00a0reads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Howard Manly<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mark 8:34-38<\/em> a question is asked: \u201cFor what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jimmy Carter never lost his soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A person who served others until the days leading to his death, Jimmy Carter did more to advance the cause of human rights than any U.S. president in American history. That tireless commitment \u201cto advance democracy and human rights\u201d was noted by the Nobel Committee when it honored Carter with its Peace Prize<\/a> in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From establishing the nonprofit Carter Center<\/a> to working for Habitat for Humanity<\/a>, Carter never lost his moral compass in his public policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, The Conversation U.S. has published numerous stories exploring the legacy of the nation\u2019s 39th president \u2013 and his blessed life after leaving the world of American politics. Here are selections from those articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. A preacher at heart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a scholar<\/a> of American religious history, Asbury University Professor David Swartz believes that a speech Carter gave on July 15, 1979, was the most theologically profound speech by an American president since Lincoln\u2019s Second Inaugural Address<\/a>, on March 4, 1865.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter\u2019s nationally televised sermon was watched by 65 million Americans as he \u201cintoned an evangelical-sounding lament about a crisis of the American spirit,\u201d Swartz wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the legislation in the world,\u201d Carter proclaimed during the speech, \u201ccan\u2019t fix what\u2019s wrong with America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was wrong, Carter believed, was self-indulgence and consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuman identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns,\u201d Carter preached. But \u201cowning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Tough-minded policies on human rights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though Carter was considered a weak leader after Iranian religious militants<\/a> seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, his overseas policies were far more effective than critics have claimed, wrote<\/a> Gonzaga College historian Robert C. Donnelly<\/a>, especially when it came to the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan<\/a> in 1979, for instance, Carter imposed an embargo on U.S. grain sales<\/a> that targeted the Soviet Union\u2019s dependence on imported wheat and corn to feed its population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To further punish the Soviets, Carter persuaded the U.S. Olympic Committee to refrain from competing in the upcoming Moscow Olympics while the Soviets repressed their own people and occupied Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Carter\u2019s critics, none was harsher than Ronald Reagan. But in 1986, after beating Carter for the White House, even he had to acknowledge Carter\u2019s foresight<\/a> in modernizing the nation\u2019s military forces, a measure that further increased economic and diplomatic pressure on the Soviets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReagan admitted that he felt very bad for misstating Carter\u2019s policies and record on defense,\u201d Donnelly wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Carter\u2019s unexpected liberal foe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reagan\u2019s win over Carter in the 1980 U.S. presidential race was due in part to Carter\u2019s bitter race during the Democratic primary against an heir to one of America\u2019s great political families \u2013 Ted Kennedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy\u2019s decision to run against Carter was \u201csomething of a shock to Carter,\u201d wrote<\/a> Thomas J. Whalen<\/a>, a Boston University associate professor of social science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1979, Kennedy had pledged to support Carter\u2019s reelection bid but later succumbed to pressure in liberal Democratic circles to launch his own presidential bid and fulfill his family\u2019s destiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Whalen wrote, Kennedy \u201charbored deep reservations about Carter\u2019s leadership, especially in the wake of a faltering domestic economy, high inflation and the seizure of the American Embassy in Iran by radical Muslim students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Carter vowed to \u201cwhip (Kennedy\u2019s) ass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that win over Kennedy came at a high cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving expended so much political and financial capital fending off Kennedy\u2019s challenge,\u201d Whalen wrote, \u201che was easy pickings for Reagan in that fall\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. A quiet fight against a deadly disease<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Guinea worm is a painful parasitic disease that is contracted when people consume water from stagnant sources contaminated with the worm\u2019s larvae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clemson University Professor Kimberly Paul has worked as a parasitologist<\/a> for over two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know the suffering that parasitic diseases like Guinea worm infections inflict on humanity, especially on the world\u2019s most vulnerable and poor communities,\u201d she wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1986, it infected an estimated 3.5 million people per year in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, that number has been reduced by more than 99.99% to 13 provisional cases in 2022, in large part because of Carter and his efforts to eradicate the disease. Those efforts included teaching people to filter all drinking water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, Carter\u2019s efforts proved tremendously successful. On Jan. 24, 2023, The Carter Center, the nonprofit founded by the former U.S. president, announced<\/a> that \u201cGuinea worm is poised to become the second human disease in history to be eradicated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first was smallpox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Carter\u2019s brave step in Cuba<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2002, long after his departure from the White House in 1981, Carter became the the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since the 1959 Cuban Revolution<\/a>. Carter had accepted the invitation of then President Fidel Castro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Lynn McCoy<\/a>, now at Georgia State University, was director of The Carter Center\u2019s Americas Program<\/a> at the time and accompanied Carter on that trip, on which he gave a speech in Spanish<\/a> that called on Castro to lift restrictions on free speech and assembly, among other constitutional reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro was unmoved by the speech but instead invited Carter to watch a Cuban all-star baseball game<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the game, McCoy wrote<\/a>, \u201cCastro asked Carter for a favor\u201d \u2013 to walk to the pitcher\u2019s mound without his security detail to show how much confidence he had in the Cuban people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the objections of his Secret Service agents, Carter obliged and walked to the mound with Castro and threw out the first pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carter\u2019s move was a symbol of what normal relations could look like between the two nations \u2013 and of Carter\u2019s unwavering faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation\u2019s archives<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard Manly<\/a>, Race + Equity Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howard Manly, The Conversation In Mark 8:34-38 a question is asked: \u201cFor what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?\u201d Jimmy Carter never lost his soul. A person who served others until the days leading to his death, Jimmy Carter did more to advance the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[3130,3965,473,2275,1590,260,988,3305,987,12297,714],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35139,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35137\/revisions\/35139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}