(SOME PORTIONS MAY DISTURB OF OFFEND)
(SOME ADDITIONAL VIDEO, TEXT ADDED)
JIMMY CARTER CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS 1976
As America witnessed inflation and expanding government spending in the 1970's along with political scandal in the form of Watergate a new face came onto the political scene.
This new face created the notion of someone who was a different kind of Democrat who looked like he was from the outside of politics.
Jimmy Carter was elected Governor of Georgia in 1970 weaving his way through politics saying what had to be said to win maybe making himself look more racist and segregationist that he was in his heart to replace segregationist Lester Maddox who beat Carter in the Democrat primary of 1966 when Carter made his first bid for governor.
"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again"
JOHN 3:7 IN THE KING JAMES BIBLE
Early on in the 1976 Presidential Campaign the media would seize on the religious aspect of Jimmy Carter's life with the description:
"Born-Again Christian"
Jimmy Carter won a narrow victory in 1976 against a surging from behind incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford who was supported by the man he edged out for the GOP nomination Ronald Reagan.
"Morality In Foreign Policy"
would be a catchphrase in the mainstream media once Jimmy Carter began his presidency. I even recall making a speech about the notion but what did it mean for President Carter?
Some watershed moments would certainly be Iran where Carter would pull the rug out from under the rule of the Shah of Iran opening the door for a revolution that would end up taking American embassy staff hostage and in the present age present a security threat and human rights record that puts Iran in the rogue's gallery with China, North Korea and Russia.
In Nicaragua Communist rebels known as the Sandinistas would be allowed to take power as Carter backed out from the traditional US support for strongman General Anastasio Somoza.
The Soviet Union would invade Afghanistan in 1979 leading the Carter Administration to cozy up to Pakistan's military government using Pakistan as a funnel to support Islamist rebels there.
Jimmy Carter distanced himself from concerns about the moral decline of the West offered by the prophetic Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn then living in the USA but would later make his own speech from the White House lamenting a "malaise" in America.
In 1980 Ronald Reagan would take the Republican nomination for President and deliver a convincing landslide victory over Jimmy Carter 489 to 49 in the Electoral College.
Jimmy Carter should also be remembered for seeking peace in the Middle East brokering an agreement between Israel and Egypt (Camp David Accords).
After his Presidency Jimmy Carter participated in charitable and humanitarian activities and on one occasion was able to convince the Communist leader in Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, to relinquish power after losing an election.
Then there's China given formal diplomatic recognition by Mr. Carter at the beginning of 1979.
Jimmy Carter speaking in a December 1978 speech in favor of the "One China Principle" that Taiwan was part of China.
That idea perfectly acceptable in 1978 now replaced by notions of Taiwan being a democracy which China obviously wasn't in 1978 and still isn't...
Carter also involved with the Panama Canal Treaty that ceded sovereignty over the strategic waterway to Panama.
But for me I find some identification-truth in Jimmy Carter's comments offered to "Playboy" in an interview during the 1976 campaign that was widely reported on, parodied and treated with silliness.
I recall having to argue for Gerald Ford in a Social Studies class bringing up this interview to put Jimmy Carter down.
The gut-level honesty of Mr. Carter came out in the interview as he simply said:
"I try not to commit a deliberate sin. I recognize that I'm going to do it anyhow, because I'm human and I'm tempted. And Christ set some almost impossible standards for us. Christ said 'I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery.'
I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do and I have done it--and God forgives me for it. But that doesn't mean that I condemn someone who not only looks on a woman with lust but who leaves his wife and shacks up with somebody out of wedlock.
Christ says, Don't consider yourself better than someone else because one guy screws a whole bunch of women while the other guy is loyal to his wife. The guy who's loyal to his wife ought not to be condescending or proud because of his relative degree of sinfulness.
One thing that Paul Tillich said was that religion is a search for the truth about man's existence and his relationship with God and his fellow man; and that once you stop searching and think you've got it made---at that point, you lose your religion.
Constant reassessment, searching in one's heart---it gives me a feeling of confidence"
FROM PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER'S 'PLAYBOY' INTERVIEW NOVEMBER 1976 ISSUE
And those words allow me to find something more positive about the character of the 39th US President Jimmy Carter although the theological details are always something to disagree about.
The comments of the long-time Sunday School teacher in that portion of the "Playboy Interview" gave us something that endures something for life today and for the ages.
The issue of lust in my own life is something I've looked in the eye and have some experience, strength and hope to share and what Mr. Carter says rings true as all of us human beings can be on a path to be like Jesus not perfect but seeking to be more like God.
A path that is available if one chooses to follow it.
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