Former Presidents Should be Seen and Not Heard- Especially Jimmy Carter

I recently wrote about Jimmy Carter’s upcoming appearance at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. At the time, I commented about why such a misguided person would be invited to speak at seminar for church leaders. In a recent conversation with Paul Braoudakis, a spokesman for Willow Creek, he told me that “we are interested in learning from his humanitarian works and outreach ideas, not his political ideas.”

As I said in my column from several weeks ago, I have long respected Bill Hybels; his seemingly innate ability to reinvent himself, find a new path, and expand his universe is something rarely seen, especially in the Christian community. However, I am terribly disappointed that he has chosen the former president to speak to a group of Christian leaders.

At the time, I put it to you, the readers of The Church Report and The CR Daily,and ran a poll question online asking whether or not you felt that former President Jimmy Carter should speak at a leadership forum for Christian leaders. The results: No- a resounding 83% and Yes- a rather impish, 17%. (We received a total of 363,000 total votes over a 7 day period).

Since Willow Creek has decided to invite President Carter to discuss humanitarian issues,perhaps his latest rant regarding Hamas and Fath will change their minds. Addressing a conference of Irish human officials this week, Carter said that the U.S. should stop favoring the Fatah movement. Keep in mind that this was the democratically elected government of Gaza. Carter went on to claim that the U.S. refusal to accept the Hamas election results was “criminal”. So we are clear and understand who plays for what team, Fatah is the democratically-elected government of the Palestinian Authority lead by Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that tried to disrupt the elections in 2006 and is responsible for countless terrorist attacks and makes it their manifesto to destroy Israel. In the last week, Hamas, the terrorist organization that Carter praised for their “superior skills and discipline”, stormed the government offices of Fatah last weekend, lined up leading officials and killed them. They now have control of the government and the people of Gaza and The West Bank, including many Christians who are fearing for their lives.

In recent weeks, Carter has also caused a rift in the Baptist Church over the liberal gathering at the New Baptist Covenant. This event, aimed at bringing faction of Baptists together, has turned out to be a divisive regret. Carter has also been a vocal critic of the Faith-based initiatives of the current administration, saying, “ As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one.," Additionally, Carter has also been criticized by Evangelicals for his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, where he wrote, “It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombing and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel.” Critics of this book also took issue with the former president’s choice of the word, “apartheid”, in the title. Carter maintains he did mot mean to “equate Zionism with racism.”

I can only hope that the brain trust at Willow Creek will reconsider their invitation to President Carter. I would think that praising a terrorist organization that is currently holding thousands of Christians in peril would not constitute his expertise on humanitarian issues.