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Showing Original Post only (View all)Evangelicals loved Jimmy Carter -- until his anti-racism turned them against him [View all]
How Jimmy Carter's so-called betrayal of evangelicals led to MAGA
Evangelicals loved Jimmy Carter until his anti-racism turned them against him
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published January 9, 2025 6:00AM (EST)
(Salon) Today's funeral for former President Jimmy Carter follows nearly two weeks of reminiscence about the legacy of the Georgia Democrat who held the White House for one term in the late '70s. Some of it has been hagiographic, especially in light of the dramatic contrast between Carter's genuine faith decency and Donald Trump's sociopathy and obviously fake Christianity. But much of the remembrance has been refreshingly nuanced, reflecting both on Carter's failures in office alongside his many accomplishments, many in his post-presidency. One of the most important legacies he'll leave behind is a complex one, though it is rooted in one of Carter's best traits, his commitment to anti-racism. During his presidency, Carter inadvertently revealed a fundamental truth about white evangelical culture: its guiding star is not faith or morality, but racism.
....(snip)....
In January 1976, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University, a Christian school that banned Black students. In 1978, the IRS tried to expand this by proposing a rule that would strip schools of tax-exempt status if they didn't meet very conservative criteria for including students of color. Careful readers have likely already picked up on the fact that Carter wasn't involved in any meaningful way in these IRS moves. Gerald Ford was still president when Bob Jones University was penalized, the policy being enforced was developed during Richard Nixon's administration. In 1978, Carter wasn't aware that IRS leadership was upping enforcement against segregation academies. These were the countless private often religious schools that opened after Brown v. Board of Education to recreate the whites-only education environment racist parents preferred.
....(snip)....
As historian Randall Balmer explained at Religion News Service, the sleight of hand regarding the timeline was only the beginning of the mendacity religious right leaders brought to their campaign against Carter. Jerry Falwell openly invented an exchange between himself and Carter that never happened:
Falwell began recounting to various audiences and political rallies across the country how he had asked Carter why practicing homosexuals served on the White House staff. Carter, according to Falwell, replied, I am president of all the American people and I believe I should represent everyone. Falwells rejoinder: Why dont you have some murderers and bank robbers and so forth to represent?
As a tape recording of the White House gathering demonstrated, however, the president made no such comment. Falwell, in fact, had fabricated the entire exchange in an apparent attempt to discredit Carter in the eyes of evangelicals.
....(snip)....
The lies about Carter and the IRS had traction with white evangelicals because they touched on a larger truth: he was opposed to racial segregation and white supremacy. He gave a speech on the 25th anniversary of Brown v. Board where he acknowledged that "racial segregation still exists in our schools, and so does discrimination in housing and in other aspects of human life," but also called on the audience to "be even more determined" to fight for racial equality. Carter also made a lot of high-profile moves to welcome Black people into American leadership, such as appointing Black civil rights leader Andrew Young to be the United Nations ambassador and appointing the first Black woman, Amalya Kearse, to be an appellate judge. .................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/01/09/how-jimmy-carters-so-called-betrayal-of-evangelicals-led-to-maga/
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Evangelicals loved Jimmy Carter -- until his anti-racism turned them against him [View all]
marmar
Jan 9
OP
Christian Evangelicals are not Christian they are bigots by the most part. BTW if the biblical Jesus is true than he ..
Botany
Jan 9
#3
BTW this may have been a local thing from where I was raised, southern hillbilly, but
spike jones
Jan 9
#7
Say what you want about Hill Billy Good Old Boys, If I was ever stuck in a tough situation nobody ..
Botany
Jan 9
#15
He was a "traitor" to their class, just as the Kennnedys, the Roosevelts, and the Rockefellers
valleyrogue
Jan 9
#12