Blog #106--Practicing What We Preach

Jimmy Carter, president of the United States from 1977-1980, recently announced he has brain cancer. Everyone dies; if not cancer, then something else will eventually separate the 90-year-old’s spirit from his body. Like the rest of us, his life can be measured by his actions during his lifetime. In that sense, he is someone who has practiced what he preaches.

I am not politically astute, so I won’t comment on his actions while president. He did some good things, but he was also involved in some decisions which backfired on him and the country. In that sense, his political career was similar to all other presidents before and since. But what he did after his term in office is perhaps a better means of evaluating the measure of the man. Whether we agree with his philosophy of life or not, he was consistent in his efforts to be the best person he could be.

Unlike most ex-presidents, Carter devoted the remainder of his life to helping others. He was a tireless worker for international peace and brotherhood. He worked constantly to find commonality between competing factions and helped democratic countries carry out fair elections. In his spare time, he helped build homes for the underprivileged. In other words, he treated others as he would wish to be treated. He practiced his faith.

When Carter gave an interview with Playboy magazine, he said it was a sin to lust in our hearts. His religious upbringing made no distinction between doing something and thinking something, and he was taught it was a sin to have extramarital affairs. As far as I know, he held true to that philosophy throughout his life. While I disagree with the notion that thoughts passing through our brains are necessarily sinful, there likely is some truth to the notion that rape is rape, whether it is performed physically or mentally. Whether or not Carter’s beliefs are based on Universal Truth, he follows his beliefs consistently.

When he announced his cancer, Carter was at peace with himself and his illness. He spoke like a man who KNEW he did the best he could in life and was prepared for the afterlife. This goes beyond mere faith. He accepts his condition without judgment. At a recent press conference he stated honestly, “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes.”

This was the crux of syndicated newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.’s recent tribute to Carter in the Miami Herald. Pitts described eloquently the difference between Carter’s faith and that of many others who claim to have strong religious backgrounds:

“America is a nation of faith." So it is often said.

"In faith, a baker refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. In faith, a minister prays for the president to die. In faith, terrorists plant bombs at the finish line of a marathon. In faith, mosques are vandalized, shot at and burned. In faith, a televangelist asks his followers to buy him a $65 million private jet.

“And no one is even surprised anymore.

“In America, what we call faith is often loud, often exclusionary, sometimes violent and too frequently enamored of shiny, expensive things. In faith, ill-tempered people mob the shopping malls every year at Christmas to have fistfights and gunfights over hot toys and high-end electronics.”

Carter set an example for the rest of us to follow. If we wish to live by certain principles, we must do so to the best of our ability every day of our lives. Otherwise, we are simply hypocrites. Whether our beliefs are based on facts or wishful thinking, they mean nothing to us if we don’t respect them and find practical uses for them. Carter was consistent in his efforts to practice what he preached. In doing so, Pitts became an admirer:

“Carter presented an image of faith we don’t see nearly as often as we should. Which is sad, because it is also the image truest to what faith is supposed to be—not a magic lamp you rub in hopes of a private jet, not a license for our worse impulses, but, rather, an act of surrender to a force greater than self, a way of being centered enough to tell whatever bleak thing comes your way, ‘So be it.’ Even fearsome death itself: ‘So be it.’”

Regardless of our political preferences, we can benefit when those like President Jimmy Carter set a good example to emulate. Faith means nothing if it isn’t supported by our actions.

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