There was something about the death of former President Jimmy Carter that left millions of Americans saddened in a way rarely felt when a prominent person whom we only know by reputation passes from the scene.

Carter’s life became a symbol of the highest principles that we like to think underpin our nation. His compassion, his love for his fellow man and his steadfast belief that all of us are indeed created equal and should be treated as equals led him to more than four decades of incomparable service to his fellow man after he left the White House in defeat in 1981. His death left many Americans feeling that something vital to the nation had slipped away.

Eulogies delivered during his state funeral as well as in the Capitol Rotunda, where his body lay in state for two days, all touched on his Christian faith and how his beliefs led to a life of service.

The Rev. Andrew Young, whom President Carter named the first Black U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a homily during the funeral that Carter symbolized “the greatness of the United States,” and that despite difficult times “he never wavered from his commitment to God Almighty and his love of God’s children.”

President Joe Biden said Carter’s attributes could be summarized in one word: character. 

Biden also described what might seem to be contradictions in Carter’s life.

Carter was, he said, “a decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace, a brilliant nuclear engineer who led a nuclear nonproliferation (effort), a hardworking farmer who championed conservation and clean energy.”

Significantly, the accolades that Carter’s life produced at its end have come from Republicans as well as Democrats, conservatives as well as liberals. Some of that, of course, is pro forma, expected whenever a prominent person dies. But I suspect it runs deeper than that with respect to Carter. There is a sense that something important to our survival as a nation has passed from the scene, not just with his death but in recent decades. We are certainly not doomed by the death of one person, but we are poorer, not only for the loss of this extraordinary man, but for our failure to be more like him, to produce more leaders like him, to shape national decisions on the principles that have driven men and women like him.

Those who keep track of such things say Carter was never very popular among other past presidents because he was always so doggone outspoken. The honesty that was one of his chief characteristics too often led him to poke his nose into things that most past presidents would never meddle in. But that determination to live his faith also led him to champion efforts to eradicate deadly diseases among the world’s poorest people, to house the poor, to seek peace wherever possible and to promote fair elections where everyone’s voice is heard.

His commitment to provide housing for America’s poor is probably his most visible charity. When he was asked to become a spokesman for the Habitat for Humanity project, he put on a tool belt, donned a hardhat and became one of its volunteers. He and his beloved wife, Rosalynn, worked side by side with other volunteers for decades, until they were physically unable to do so.

And then, there was Jimmy Carter, Sunday School teacher. He began teaching Bible lessons when he was a midshipman at Annapolis in the 1940s, and taught Sunday School lessons from then on, including during his years in the White House — the only president ever to have done so.

During a private funeral in the Carters’ home church Thursday, the Rev. Tony Lowden said simply, “God called the Sunday School teacher home.” 

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter made the commitment, when they left the White House, to return to their home in Plains, Georgia, and live quietly there. The house they moved into then and lived thereafter is the modest brick rancher they built as a young couple long before he became president. They never wanted anything grander.

It was there that former President Carter died two weeks ago — a Plains, Georgia, peanut farmer, handyman and Sunday school teacher, who along the way became president and an international humanitarian.

Numerous passages of scripture were read during the tributes to Carter. Probably none speak more directly to Jimmy Carter’s life than the words of the profit Micah.

“And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”

 

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.