President Jimmy Carter Thinks It Is VERY Fine for Gay People to Be Married

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Mar 20, 2012 in UB Book Club | 2 comments

Former President Jimmy Carter talks Christianity and gay marriage in a new interview with HuffPost’s Senior Religion Editor Paul Brandeis Raushenbush to promote his new book NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter.

While we have the utmost respect for President Carter, we’re not going to pretend that we have the stomach to make it through an entire book about someone’s interpretation of the Bible. So let’s just skip to the best part of the interview about the book, shall we?

A lot of people point to the Bible for reasons why gay people should not be in the church, or accepted in any way.

Homosexuality was well known in the ancient world, well before Christ was born and Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things -– he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.

I draw the line, maybe arbitrarily, in requiring by law that churches must marry people. I’m a Baptist, and I believe that each congregation is autonomous and can govern its own affairs. So if a local Baptist church wants to accept gay members on an equal basis, which my church does by the way, then that is fine. If a church decides not to, then government laws shouldn’t require them to.

If chitty chatty Bible study with former leaders of the free world is your bag, then you may want to scoop up NIV Lessons from Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter.

Thanks for having our backs, Mr. President! That very was a nice touch, pal!

(via HuffPost)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=612921018 Dave Silverstone

Such a damn shame he lost to Reagan in 1980 — of course, in no small part due to his tin ear for public perception, and the “secret deal” that Reagan’s backers struck with Iran over the hostages, leaving those to hurt Carter leading up to the election.

He was right on energy efficiency, on transportation, on education… Much like I think this country blew a decade of advancement by choosing Bush over Gore, we took a pass on the future when we picked Reagan over Carter.
Anonymous

And of all our former presidents, definitely in the last century, and possibly in the history of this country, he has been the biggest class act. He’s smart, thoughtful, turned his efforts to Habitat for Humanity and made serious efforts to broker world peace. He walks the real walk of the New Testament he believes in. He’s living proof that a president doesn’t have to be a huge success while in office to be a truly great person … and that history can and will record more about a president than his years in the oval office.

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