By Dr. Gary Scott Smith

On October 1, Jimmy Carter will celebrate his 100th birthday, becoming the first former president to reach this milestone. This occasion provides a fitting time to consider Carter’s life and legacy. He is one of the nation’s most outspoken Christian presidents. Carter’s devout faith helped shape his policies on human rights, nuclear arms control, the environment, and the Panama Canal. It also strongly affected his efforts to strengthen families, reduce poverty, reform welfare, curb energy usage, slow world population growth, and broker peace between Israel and Egypt.

Despite his fervent Baptist convictions and lifelong church involvement, Carter did not develop a coherent Christian political philosophy. This was due in part because he lacked a network of supportive Christian politicians to provide counsel or criticism. By the mid-1970s numerous evangelicals were serving in Congress, and some professors and politicians had begun to examine political issues from a distinctively Christian perspective. Carter, however, did not solicit committed Christian advisors, develop close relationships with religious leaders, or interact with nonpartisan evangelical political organizations, which deprived him of potentially helpful biblical and theological analysis of his positions.

Carter saw himself as the national trustee who represented the public interest. As such, he focused on doing what he deemed to be right rather than politically expedient. Carter was a southerner, a governor with no experience inside the Beltway, more politically conservative than many Democratic congressmen, and a deeply committed Christian functioning in a context where many believed that religious convictions were either irrelevant or a hindrance. Carter worked painstakingly to gain public support for his policies and programs, but he never attained sufficient support or political legitimacy to succeed as a trustee president. Moreover, Carter’s religious sensibilities clashed with the secularity of many academic, media, and political elites who set the tone for social and cultural life and often resented and resisted his approach to governance.

Carter recognized that the Bible spoke only indirectly to many political and social issues and that the United States was a pluralistic nation whose people held a wide variety of ideological convictions that must be considered in policymaking. Nevertheless, his commitment to such biblical ideals as justice, peace, righteousness, and concern for the poor helped guide his political thinking and direct his work. He pursued policies he deemed broadly beneficial and refused to pander to special interests. As laudable as this sounds, Carter’s unwillingness to compromise on numerous specific issues prevented him from attaining many of his domestic goals.

Assessments of Carter’s domestic and foreign policy vary greatly. Some have labeled his presidency “spectacularly inept—a colossal failure, if not a tragedy.” Others contend that Carter was a mediocre president. Historian Burton Kaufman argues that the Democrat never gained the support of institutions and interests in Washington that he needed to govern effectively; he was “smart, caring honest, and well-informed,” but he “self-righteously believed that what he thought was right should prevail.”

Carter’s primary foreign policy goals were to replace global confrontation with international cooperation, promote human rights, and create a “new world order” resting on justice, stability, peace, and collaboration among nations. By the end of his tenure, however, Carter adopted a Cold War posture similar to that of presidents from Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson. Carter focused on improving the United States’ relationship with China, denouncing human rights violations in the Soviet bloc, and avoiding new quagmires abroad.

Historian Gladdis Smith and other scholars praise Carter’s approach as “morally responsible and farsighted” and for encouraging American to see themselves as world citizens who had an obligation to future generations. They insist, however, that the actions of the Soviet Union, the attacks of his critics, and the conflicting perspectives of his advisors made Carter’s vision appear naïve and thwarted his goals.

Carter steadfastly insisted that moral principles should guide America’s interaction with other nations. Because of its wealth, power, and resources, the United States was obligated to play a leading role in world affairs. The Baptist repeatedly asserted that America should actively promote peace and human rights, work to reduce arms, and use its foreign policy aid to alleviate hunger, slow population growth, and halt environmental devastation. In the long run, he argued, this policy would benefit the United States.

Certainly, Carter faced a Herculean task because of the lingering impact of the Vietnam War and Watergate, double-digit inflation, an economic recession, an energy crisis, tension in the Middle East, the nuclear arms race, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the nation’s cultural malaise. Nevertheless, many scholars and other Americans contended that Carter dealt ineffectively with Congress, failed to sufficiently defend American interests abroad, and displayed uncertainty about the nation’s purposes and priorities.

The nation’s 39th chief executive is one of only five 20^th century presidents not to be reelected. Some argue that the Democrat lost the 1980 election because of global economic forces and political events beyond his control and because he confronted a very popular opponent in Republican Ronald Reagan. Others insist that his policies and personality were the principal reason for his defeat.

Positively, Carter convinced Congress to give Panama sovereignty over the canal bisecting its nation, negotiated the Camp David Accords that ended warfare between Egypt and Israel, and normalized relations with China. His protests against human rights violations abroad inspired dissidents in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and helped prompt Reagan and his successors to emphasize this issue. Moreover, his policies helped lay the groundwork for Reagan and George H. W. Bush’s successful quest to bring about the demise of the Soviet Union and end the cold war.

While Carter’s centennial birthday prompts us to evaluate his life and legacy, as we celebrate it, may we focus principally upon his sterling character, passion for justice, and service to humanity as a president, peacemaker, and ambassador for Habitat for Humanity.

Gary Scott Smith is Professor of History Emeritus at Grove City College and is a fellow for faith and politics with the Institute for Faith and Freedom. He is the author of “Strength for the Fight: The Life and Faith of Jackie Robinson” (2022), “Duty and Destiny: The Life and Faith of Winston Churchill” (January 2021), “A History of Christianity in Pittsburgh” (2019), “Suffer the Children” (2017), “Religion in the Oval Office” (Oxford University Press, 2015), “Faith and the Presidency From George Washington to George W. Bush” (Oxford University Press, 2009), “Religion in the Oval Office” and “Heaven in the American Imagination” (Oxford University Press, 2011).