It’s terribly easy to come up with examples of bad faith. Examples of good faith can become refreshing. They can resonate. The truth is that there are many examples of good faith, but in a culture of noise and polarization the loudest voices are often the most noticed.
I wrote sometime ago in Evangelically Departed (Jan 5, 2021), about a documentary about Jimmy Carter and some of the popular music that overlapped with his one-term Presidential administration. Rock and Roll President is well worth watching. It is positive and hopeful, actually uplifting, while not being idealistic.
Jimmy Carter has entered into hospice care. He is 98 years old. He has offered an example of positive, hopeful faith motivated more by love than by fear. He has separated from the denomination of his upbringing and formative years because of his Christian faith, not in spite of it. He has spoken about the need to embrace all people rather than to draw hard lines having to do with social and cultural issues.
There will be many tributes to Carter in the days ahead and upon his death. Here is what he said about death in 2019 when he received a diagnosis of cancer that would likely bring the end of his life if something else did not first;
“I, obviously, prayed about it. I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I just asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death. It didn’t really matter to me whether I died or lived.”
If you have read about Jimmy Carter and his faith or if you have read stories of his life, you will know that the statement above is not a statement of resignation or despair. It is a statement of peace and hope and trust. We could use more of that in the world.
Jonathan Alter has written an extensive biography of Carter that demonstrates a biographical intent to look at the joys and challenges, positive and negative of a life. The book is called His Very Best. Carter himself has written extensively and has a legacy of initiatives of peace and compassion.
There are all kinds of conversations that can be had about Carter’s presidency and his political life. Some of these are of contemporary interest in relation to the current challenges around inflation and energy. I write this today, not necessarily to engender those conversations, but to offer something of a preparation for the recollection and memory of faith lived well.
We need these good examples still. We can often have them on the local level, people we have known in our various communities and churches. Locally and globally, however, the negative examples can drown out the positive ones. We can be thankful that positive and hopeful and compassionate lives still resonate far and wide.
Here is Jonathan Alter’s Substack with recent reference to Jimmy Carter.