During the 1976 presidential campaign, The New York Times ran a front-page story on Jimmy Carter’s Baptist faith. “There has been no serious challenge to Mr. Carter’s sincerity or his spiritual credibility,” the reporter concluded. “Most uneasiness appears to stem from a fear that an evangelistically minded President might use his power to advance his beliefs or violate the separation of church and state.”
Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100 in Plains, Georgia, went on to win the presidency and spent the decades of his post-presidency championing human rights around the world and building houses through Habitat for Humanity. He taught Sunday school classes before, during, and after his time in the White House. No matter what you think of his actions as president, there was no serious challenge to his spiritual credibility. Jimmy Carter faithfully followed Jesus.
It turned out that the most devoutly Christian president in modern American politics was also an ardent defender of the separation of church and state.
And as for the aforementioned “uneasiness,” it turned out that the most devoutly Christian president in modern American politics was also an ardent defender of the separation of church and state. Carter modeled what it looks like for a Christian to engage in politics while steadfastly guarding against theocracy and Christian nationalism.
It’d be difficult to find a starker difference in how a president wields religion than the juxtaposition of Jimmy Carter and President-elect Donald Trump.
As the Times noted in the same 1976 article, “Mr. Carter’s supporters say that Baptists have been in the forefront of struggles to maintain a wall of separation between church and state and that the candidate’s record shows nothing that could raise any objections on this score.”
President Carter stood strong in support of healthy boundaries between religion and government as president. He opposed coercing students to pray in public schools. He understood the difference between his duties as president and as parishioner, ending the practice of inviting evangelical pastors, like the Rev. Billy Graham, to have services in the White House. Instead, he worshipped with his family at a Baptist church near the White House.
Carter understood the history of religion and politics in the United States, and that religious freedom is protected by not allowing the government to promote or denigrate religion, something he succinctly summarized in a speech to Southern Baptist Brotherhood Commission in 1978:
“Separation is specified in the law, but for a religious person, there is nothing wrong with bringing these two together, because you can’t divorce religious beliefs from public service. And at the same time, of course, in public office you cannot impose your own religious beliefs on others.”
Carter also called out Christians who weaponized the faith to serve their own political interests. “During the last two decades, these principles [of church-state separation] have been challenged, often successfully, by Christian fundamentalists,” he wrote in 1996. “Under the banner of the Christian Coalition, they have merged with the conservative wing of the Republican Party, becoming an active force in politics and enjoying a series of election successes.”
Still, the merging of right-wing politics with Christian fundamentalism continued to gain more strength, culminating with Trump’s wins in 2016 and 2024.
“Mr. Carter … rejects any suggestions that he has a messiah complex,” the Times reported in the 1976 article. By contrast, Trump actively plays up his messiah complex. “I don’t think God is going to make me president by any means,” Carter said on the campaign trail in 1976. Carter said he didn’t ask God, “Let me succeed,” but, “Let me do the right thing.” Trump suggested that surviving an assassination attempt was evidence God wanted him to be president. Carter said he didn’t ask God, “Let me succeed,” but, “Let me do the right thing.” Trump suggested that surviving an assassination attempt was evidence God wanted him to be president. Honesty is a consistent theme of Christian teaching. Carter promised to restore faith in government, telling Americans he would “never knowingly lie” to them. According to The Washington Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first term. And perhaps the biggest difference between Carter and Trump in terms of Christian living was that Carter didn’t enter public service to enrich himself. He returned to live in the modest house in Plains, Georgia, that he and his wife of 77 years built in 1961. Compare that to Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago while reading Jesus in the Beatitudes proclaim, “Blessed are the meek.” It may at first seem ironic that Carter was devout and didn’t push his Christian beliefs on others while in office, while Trump uses religion as a political tool divorced from personal devotion. But the lesson here is that true faith doesn’t boast. True faith doesn’t coerce. True faith sets an example. True faith isn’t a stunt like selling branded Bibles. It’s steadfastly teaching the Bible in Sunday school week after week. Jimmy Carter was an example for all Christians, and one we desperately need to embrace in the era of growing Trumpian, far-right fundamentalism.
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons
Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons is vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance and the author of "Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity." 
