Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Lane Hall-Witt]

OT

In response to this, I have to say that the relentless ad hominem attacks on Jimmy Carter from the right-wing and Christian Coalition types have always baffled me. There's certainly much to criticize in his presidency and his naivete regarding the prospects for good-faith negotiation and peace with regimes like North Korea and Iraq. But has this country ever had a president who has committed his life more fully to the words Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount? All of this "idiot" talk -- or talk that makes Carter out to be a virtual anti-Christ -- concerns a man who has tried sincerely to live the Christian life that he believes the Bible instructs him to live. Carter is a sinner, just like all humans. We can debate his understanding of the Bible and the way it has shaped his public life: we might well conclude that he has not understood and lived the Bible in a way that a public official should. But to deny the sincerity of his faith and the intensity of his effort to wrestle with the Bible and live a Christian life . . . this goes further than any mere human creature is qualified to go in casting judgment on another person.