Carter’s Progressive Christianity: Creating an Integrated Life

Jimmy Carter in Savelugu, Ghana Feb 8, 2007
Used by permission, The Carter Center

Carter’s Progressive Christianity:

Creating an Integrated Life

by Geoffrey W. Sutton

2 January 2025

I read Joe Heim’s 2025 article about Jimmy Carter’s faith in the Washington Post with some interest because the title referred to a topic I have explored over the years—the integration of faith and life.

Here’s Heim’s title that got my attention:

For Jimmy Carter, faith was inseparable from politics and life.

Heim retells a story familiar to those of us who are olde enough to have followed Carter’s newsworthy career since he appeared on the national stage in 1976. We know he was a man of principle and that his conservative Christian beliefs informed his life decisions. Truly he was an evangelical Christian.

It’s a bit ironic that his admission to the sin of lust and the Playboy story cost him some evangelical votes when we think about the sexual escapades of current politicians. However, that’s not my focus here.

Reread the article’s title. If you did not read the article, you might think that Carter’s evangelical Christianity informed his life. But faith, like Carter himself, changes.

Carter rejected his Southern Baptist Faith because of his commitment to equality for women. His old faith was NOT INSEPARABLE. Instead, to integrate faith and life, he had to change his faith.

John Casey wrote about Jimmy Carter’s support for LGBTQ+ rights in his 2024 article in the Advocate. He was the first US president to permit a meeting of gay rights leaders at the White House. The meeting took place in March 1977. Carter knew of the meeting but was not in attendance. As Casey points out, Carter’s position reflected inclusivity. Gradually, queer rights improved. Eventually he would integrate Christianity and his support for marriage equality.

Carter’s integration of Christian faith and life on the matter of gay rights was most evident in a 2015 HuffPost interview reported by Ryan Buxton. Marc Lamont of HuffPost asked Carter a speculative question regarding Jesus’ approval of same-sex marriage. Here’s part of the quote:

“I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that's just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don't see that gay marriage damages anyone else,"

Jimmy Carter’s view on two divisive issues suggests he recognized that his old faith was not compatible with his life. He separated from his former faith. To integrate Christianity and life, Carter recreated his faith. He remained a Christian but like so many Christian leaders, he no longer identified as an evangelical. His personal split reflects the ongoing splits within Christendom.

Heim’s title is only true if we recognize that Carter’s faith and life are only inseparable if we recognize that Carter changed key components of his faith.

The official position of most Christians remains that women are not to hold clergy positions or be the head of a household and that same-sex marriage is not acceptable. It’s true that many Christians as individuals are more supportive of women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights so, when I use the term official, I mean the published positions of the large Christian groups who do not ordain women as clergy or support gay marriage.

Conservative Christians refer to cultural change as seen in the progressive Christian movement as a slippery slope and warn of horribly immoral things to come like polygamy. In contrast, progressive Christians see a rebirth of Jesus’ ministry as rising perhaps like climbing a slippery and challenging slope to new heights of equality and justice for all derived from a love for others and an attitude of humility.

References

Baxton, R. (2015, July 7) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jimmy-carter-gay-marriage_n_7744390?utm_hp_ref=hpl&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

Casey, J. (2024, October 1). https://www.advocate.com/news/jimmy-carter-gay-activists-100

Heim, J. (2025, January 1). https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2025/01/01/jimmy-carter-evangelical-baptist-faith/

Related Posts

GAY and CHRISTIAN, MATTHEW TURNER

IDENTITIES IN CONFLICT - GAY & CHRISTIAN

INTERSEX

LGBTQ and SODOM and HOMOSEXUALITY

SEX and GENDER TERMS

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE and CHRISTIAN DUTY

TRANSGENDER and the CHRISTIAN DIVIDE