Carter Rails on Fundamentalists

Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis

I saw an excerpt of this interview with Jimmy Carter a few days back in Truthdig (thanks) and I hadn’t had time to read the whole thing. I did this morning and I am glad I took the time. He has a lot to say about religious fundamentalist. Jimmy Carter is a devout Baptist but has the ability and the good sense to separate his personal philosophy/religious beliefs from his role as public servant. Bush would do well to follow his example and remember that his responsibility as president is to provide for the needs of all people, not just his personal favorites.

SPIEGEL: One main points of your book is the rather strange coalition between Christian fundamentalists and the Republican Party. How can such a coalition of the pious lead to moral catastrophes like the Iraqi prison scandal in Abu Ghraib and torture in Guantanamo?

Carter: The fundamentalists believe they have a unique relationship with God, and that they and their ideas are God’s ideas and God’s premises on the particular issue. Therefore, by definition since they are speaking for God anyone who disagrees with them is inherently wrong. And the next step is: Those who disagree with them are inherently inferior, and in extreme cases — as is the case with some fundamentalists around the world — it makes your opponents sub-humans, so that their lives are not significant. Another thing is that a fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality. And so this administration, for instance, has a policy of just refusing to talk to someone who is in strong disagreement with them — which is also a radical departure from past history. So these are the kinds of things that cause me concern. And, of course, fundamentalists don’t believe they can make mistakes, so when we permit the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, it’s just impossible for a fundamentalist to admit that a mistake was made.

SPIEGEL: So how does this proximity to Christian fundamentalism manifest itself politically?

Carter: Unfortunately, after Sept.11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous. For three years, I’d say, the major news media in our country were complicit in this subservience to the Bush administration our out of fear that they would be accused of being disloyal. I think the last six months or so some of the media have now begun to be critical. But it’s a long time in coming.

I respect Jimmy Carter’s courage to speak his mind regarding the Bush administration’s inability to understand the meaning and reasons for total separation of church and state. It takes a big man to go against the flow of adamant, devout Bush lovers.




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