Jimmy Carter Convenes Liberal Baptists

Declaring that “The powerful people who control government have to be reminded from the bottom that things need to change,” Former President Jimmy Carter recited a laundry list of liberal political concerns during an interview Friday before a gathering of liberal Baptists.

Carter spoke at the New Baptist Covenant II, meeting November 17-19 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Themed around the instruction in Luke chapter 4 to “bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” the event styled itself as an alternative to “more strident” Baptist voices, an apparent reference to the more conservative 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention.

The group was smaller than the original New Baptist Covenant gathering, which hosted over 15,000 Baptists in February of 2008 and coincided with the national conventions of historically black Baptist denominations, that were also meeting in Atlanta. For the 2011 event, Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA served as an “anchor” site, hosting worship services and breakout sessions that were broadcast via satellite to nine host cities. Organizers predicted as many as 30,000 to 35,000 Baptists could participate in the event, but the Washington, D.C. site was lightly attended on Friday. Only half a dozen viewers walked in and out of the sanctuary of Israel Baptist Church in Northeast Washington during Carter’s interview.

Carter Center Charitable Work

Carter spoke with Bob Abernethy, Executive Editor and Host of the PBS program Religion and Ethics News Weekly. Abernethy, himself a Baptist, asked the former President about progress the Carter Center had made in eradicating guinea worm, a parasite that stubbornly plagued 20 nations when Carter’s efforts began. Now down to less than 900 cases worldwide, almost exclusively in war-torn South Sudan, the disease was one of six third world ailments that Carter had targeted.

“In the next few years, guinea worm will be a matter of memory only,” Carter declared. The former president also reported on efforts to combat malaria and elephantiasis is Haiti, which has struggled to overcome an earthquake that left 600,000 Haitians living in tents.

Saying that the “devastating blight in Haiti needs to be addressed,” Carter bemoaned that foreign aid pledges of billions of dollars for Haiti had not materialized. “Those promises have been basically forgotten.”

The Future for Baptists

Asked by Abernethy where the New Baptist Covenant was headed, Carter replied that he wanted to see increased unity among Christians, and more cooperation between black and white Baptists. Noting that seven of the nine remote viewing sites for NBC II were hosted by black churches, Carter assessed that the movement had made progress on that front.

Carter also spoke against a “division in the country between the rich and powerful” namely; those who Carter asserted were making decisions, and others. This gap is “wider than ever.”

“The powerful need to be made known of the plight of the deprived,” Carter insisted, favorably citing the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. Asked what Baptist could do about an enormous gap between rich and poor, or about immigration reform, Carter replied that “we underestimate the power of doing what God ordains.”

“The powerful people who control government have to be reminded from the bottom that things need to change,” Carter argued.

Political Changes

The nature of the change Carter called for was strongly political, as he ticked through a list of liberal causes ranging from campaign finance, suggested tax increases, loosened immigration policies and grievances with Israel.

Calling the current campaign finance system “legal bribery of candidates and future members of Congress,” Carter derided the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision against part of federal campaign finance law as “one of the stupidest decisions ever made.” Saying that the “abuse” would be viewed so onerous, the former President predicted the public would eventually demand a publically financed campaign system, although he qualified such a move as taking some time to occur.

Carter also complained of a sentencing disparity between those caught in possession of crack verses lighter sentences for those caught with cocaine. Judicial sentencing activists charge that such sentencing disparity disproportionately harms black communities, where young black men are likelier to face longer prison terms for crack possession than whites who more often use cocaine.

“I think tax rates ought to be raised for the top 1 percent,” Carter added, noting that while the current rates favored him, he was prepared to pay more. Carter also argued for liberalized immigration laws that would make getting a driver’s license easier as something “we ought to pursue.”

Carter also spoke about global warming and American exceptionalism.

“Self-satisfaction and arrogance is one thing to which we must guard against,” Carter warned. “Obviously it’s not true,” he added, that the United States has blessings due to being seen in a special light by God.

Israel and Palestine

While he was not shy in sharing his political views on a wide range of topics, Carter’s passion seemed most pronounced when discussing Middle East peace. Arguing that peace among Israel and its neighbors would not be possible “for as long as Israel occupies Palestine,” the former president slammed Israel’s “racist foreign minister” Avigdor Lieberman, whom he asserted sought to turn Israel in to an “apartheid” state, analogous to old racially segregated South Africa.

Saying Washington needed “political courage” to address the matter, Carter declared he had no regrets about comparing “Palestinian oppression” to apartheid.

“Of course,” Carter added when prompted by Abernethy, Arab neighbors would need to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. Arguing that democracy and freedom were not exclusive to America or Christianity, Carter noted that the world’s largest democracy, India, was majority-Hindu, while the world’s third largest democracy, Indonesia, is majority-Muslim.

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