Friday, March 26, 1999
Jimmy Carter faces aging with faith
BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When Jimmy Carter speaks, it's easy to listen. Maybe it's the gentle voice of a former president that commands attention. Perhaps it's the sincerity of a public servant who sincerely believes in human rights, dignity and social justice.
And just maybe it's the fact that when he was president, his lust remained in his heart, not plastered in gory detail across the evening news.
Mr. Carter now has two books in circulation. The Virtues of Aging (Ballantine; $18.95) examines the challenges of growing older. The second is a paperback version of his 1996 best-seller, Living Faith (Times Books; $13).
Throughout what Mr. Carter calls “wonderful accomplishments” and “devastating setbacks” of life, his deeply rooted Christian faith has been a constant source of strength, stability and courage, he says.
Crises of his life
It helped him weather the 1953 death of his father, financial struggles with the family's peanut business, marital communication problems with his wife, Rosalynn, the challenges of fatherhood, the stress of political life and his crushing 1980 defeat for re-election as president.
“ ... to have faith in something is an inducement not to dormancy but to action,” he writes in the introduction to Living Faith. “To me, faith is not just a noun but a verb.”
Which raises the question: does faith become even more important as people grow older?
“One of the things Americans don't realize is that more than half our adult lives are now spent after we retire, and very few of us make plans for those times in advance,” said Mr. Carter, 74. Such profound changes can shake people's confidence in themselves, their finances, social networks and futures. Yet faith becomes even more important with advancing age because the issues can be more challenging.
“We know that our lives are going to come to an end on earth. How can we approach death with a sense of equanimity or well being?” he asks. “How can we approach the end of our own lives with a minimum of psychological or financial burden on the people we love?”
Personal connection
Originally intended as a book of lessons from the Bible study classes he has taught since age 18, Living Faith evolved into what he calls “as highly personal a book as I've ever written. I realized the book wouldn't be as meaningful to people if I just preached to them. If I had not put in the highly personal family events, the book would not have been so meaningful to other people and probably would not have been so successful.” (It has sold more than 250,000 copies).
Expanding faith and values beyond the confines of organized religion can offer a tremendous sense of purpose and drive, he says. Some people are motivated by their religious beliefs, others by the value of friendship, family, community service, occupation, family, social change and more.
“We can see most of the things that are focuses of human ambition — a big bank account, a house, our name in the paper,” he says. “What we can't see are the characteristics of life that are personified most vividly by Jesus — a commitment to peace, justice, service, humility, compassion, love.
He hopes that the arrival of a new millennium will bring about changes as profound in human nature, growth and the depth of human relationships as the last 100 years have brought in technological and industrial advances.
“It has not been a very good millennium as far as relationships among human beings are concerned,” he says. He specifically cited a need for compassion for the needy, tolerance of differences, forgiveness, alignment with a supreme being, courageous self-analysis, equal justice, criminal rehabilitation and better race relations.
Vestiges of racism
Even though the civil rights movement was a major turning point of his life, Mr. Carter said racial problems continue to plague the country, with churches as “the bastions of racial segregation. We sit back and, either through racial discrimination or because of a lack of sensitivity to others, don't reach out to form a feeling of brotherhood or sisterhood with those who are of difference ethnic background.”
During his tenure as Georgia governor in the 1970s, Mr. Carter said Southern governors competed to see which state could keep its prison population the lowest, and career tests were administered to entering prisoners to determine eligibility for job training and possible early release.
“Nowadays it's totally different,” he says. “The thing that governments compete for is to have the most number of people in jail and to build the most prison cells. And I think they're the kinds of things that are quite often built on racism.”
Since leaving public office in 1980 at 56, Mr. Carter and his wife founded the Carter Center in Atlanta, an institution devoted to peace, democracy and health around the world. He and his wife also are active volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit volunteer organization, which builds houses for low-income people.
Mr. Carter says the beauty of growing old is the ability to reflect, accept mistakes, resolve problems and move on with newfound hope.
“As Rosalynn and I look back on our lives now with advanced age, we're much more courageous and much more willing to say, "I wish I had done this differently,' or if it's too late to do things differently, then we try to prevent the same thing from happening.”
HE SAID IT
Former President Jimmy Carter on:
• God and prayers: “Sometimes he answers our prayers with "Yes.' Sometimes he answers our prayers with "No.' Sometimes he says, "Wait a while.' And sometimes God might answer, "You've got to be kidding.' ”
• His toughest moment: “The biggest challenge in my life was the last year I was in office when the hostages were being held in Iran. My prayer then was twofold: one, that every hostage would come home safe and free, and the second one was that I would not betray the interest of my country or the integrity of my nation. ... The biggest crisis was for me to be patient and not to wipe Iran off the face of the earth with military power but to seek for and finally achieve a peaceful resolution to the crisis.”
• The influence of “soft money” in political campaigns: “It generates a sense in our country among private citizens that most elected officials are not honest and not worthy of confidence. I would like to see some campaign-finance reform passed to end soft-money for negative ads and for an end to animosity. Such things have caused a number of our finest public servants to leave Washington in embarrassment or disgust.”
• Marital fidelity and his infamous 1976 ""lust in my heart” comment in a Playboy interview: “I don't have to talk about the definition of "is' to say I have indeed been faithful to my wife.”
• The chances for peace in the Middle East: “I still have optimism because the Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian and Arab mothers all want to see peace.”
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