What an honor and
delight to hear President Carter teach Sunday school in his home church on June
24, 2018. I stayed at the Quality Inn in Americus on Saturday night
(recommended). It is less than a 15 minute drive to the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. I had
planned to leave the motel at 4:45 AM, but the receptionist at the motel
said I should leave no later than 4:00. Okay, I came all this way; I was
determined to do this right. Plus the tour bus parked in front of the motel was
intimidating.
I left the motel at
3:30 and got to the church at 3:40 and received ticket #17. That means I was in
the 17th car, not the 17th person. There were actually about 40 people ahead of
me. I tried to sleep in the car, walked a mile down the road in the starry
clear night, walked in the gorgeous old pecan orchard behind the church, read
and talked with people until it was time to line up at 7:45. The church ladies
have this process down to a science, and while they tell jokes, they are in
charge, and you'd better do as they say.
The Secret Service
personnel at the entrance make you take everything out of your pockets, and by
everything, I mean phone, camera, wallet, note pad, pen and car keys. If you
have anything else, even a small purse, you will be sent back to your car to
lock it up. Then we were wanded with a metal detector, and we entered the
church and sat where we were told. I was in a folding chair in the aisle next
to the sixth row. This turned out to be a great seat, just as the usher said it
was, because I had an unobstructed view of the President at his lectern 20 feet
away. I later learned that the people in the front row arrived at 12:45
AM.
Getting 450 guests
into the little church and orienting us to the Secret Service rules and
regulations took up the rest of the time until Sunday school began at 10:00 AM.
I would guess that anyone who arrived after 4:30 AM was in the overflow room,
watching the President on TV. A few people cruised up after 9:00, and if they
got in, they were friends of the President or church members, or otherwise got
reserved seats, which are not available to the general public. Those of us
without connections need to get there early and wait. There is no leaving the
parking lot once you arrive and get your number. Next to the church is a
campground, behind the 13-foot-tall smiling peanut. The man behind me in line
drove over to the church to get his number, left his car in the church parking
lot as required, and walked back to his camper for breakfast and a nap. That's
about the most civilized method of dealing with this that I heard of.
While many people know
that the Carters still spend a week every year working on a Habitat for
Humanity build, alternating domestic and international sites, the church ladies
filled us in on the work done by the Carter Center. Thirty years ago, 3.5
million people were afflicted with guinea worm, which causes extremely painful
lesions. Last year, thanks to the Carter Center, there were 30 cases, and
the disease will soon be eradicated. Carter has said he wants to be remembered
for building more latrines than anyone else in the world. The Centers for
Disease Control say that no one has done more for world health than Jimmy
Carter.
We learned that when
Carter left the White House, his staff gave him a wood working shop at his
home. He made the wooden cross you see behind me in the photo, and he also made
the collection plates. On the bottom of the collection plate, he carved
"J.C." Knowing that everyone will want to look at the bottom of the
plates to see the initials, the ushers handed the plates around for the guests
to admire before the collection. Carter also paints and makes furniture. As two
of the 30 active members of the church, the Carters help with the lawn upkeep
and janitorial services at the church.
Finally at 10 AM,
after some announcements, the young pastor asked us to bow our heads to pray.
It was a calming and centering moment, and when we looked up, the former leader
of the free world, President Jimmy Carter was sitting with his big grin at the
front of the church. Some of us gasped. It was very exciting to be in the
presence of this great man.
He asked where we were
from, and dozens of states and countries were called out. One person was from
Washington, DC. Carter said, "We used to live there".
One of the themes of
the President's class was forgiveness. He said Jerry Falwell was opposed to
Carter's views on normalizing relations with China and separation of church and
state. Falwell advised his followers not to vote for Carter, which Carter says
is one of the reasons he was not elected to a second term. Carter is now
friends with Jerry Falwell Jr, and they are considering writing a book together
of the similarities in their conservative and liberal views of Christianity.
Carter is not sure this is a great idea, because he only co-wrote one of his 33
books, and that was with his wife. He would give Rosalynn a draft of his
writing, which she considered a very rough draft, while Rosalynn thought that
her writing had come down from Mount Sinai. He claims they nearly got divorced
over it, but an editor mediated to save the book and their marriage.
Remembering that Jesus
said to love your enemies, Carter decided it was time to mend fences with a
Washington Post columnist who secretly obtained Carter's debate prep book and
gave it to Ronald Reagan prior to their presidential debate. Carter thinks this
also contributed to his loss of a second presidential term. He said if we don't
tell anyone, he would tell us that the columnist was George Will. Carter has
reached out to Will, and said perhaps they can be friends. Just last week Will
said he can no longer be part of what the Republican party has become, and he
hopes the Republicans lose the House and Senate majorities this fall.
Carter mentioned the
names of some prophets in the Old Testament, and asked whether we knew who they
were. No one did. Yet these prophets were very influential, in that they spoke
truth to power and averted some disasters. Carter urged us to choose peace over
war, honesty over lying, generosity over stinginess, forgiveness over
resentment, and we should speak up and encourage other people to do the same.
Even if we aren't famous, like the prophets no one remembers, we can make a
difference in the world. He said that through prayer we can ask God to help us
be the kind of person we want to be, which will show us our life's purpose and
bring us contentment.
I have ordered a DVD
of Carter's class, and I look forward to watching it with Steve. He is already
planning to use Carter's ideas in one of his own Friday night sermons.
After the dynamic
sermon by Brandon Patterson, the church's new 24 year old pastor, Rosalynn and
Jimmy Carter patiently sat and smiled for about 30 minutes as all 450 guests
had their pictures taken with military efficiency by the lovely church
ladies.
Carter shared this home with his parents and three siblings from age 4 until he left for the Naval Academy. The house did not have a bathroom when they moved in and the only heat was the fireplace in the master bedroom.
The railroad tracks are about 100 feet from the house. Carter's mother Lillian was a nurse who treated anyone, regardless of race or ability to pay. She also feed the hobos that traveled the country by train during the Depression. She asked one why so many men came to her door, and he showed her the marks on the mailbox post indicating "Good Food" and "Christian Home".
Lillian told her family to leave the marks on the post.
I later toured the
Carter boyhood farm and the 1976 presidential campaign headquarters in the
little train station.
I saw Billy Carter's gas station (a designated historic
site because he dished to the reporters after they learned all they could at
campaign HQ), the Carter peanut warehouse, and the school where the Carters
attended first through eleventh grades. Georgia did not offer twelfth grade at
the time the Carters grew up there, and Carter went directly to the Naval
Academy with his small town education. The school is now a museum where you can
see a film about the Carters' time in Plains, and learn about Miss Julia, a
special teacher who inspired Carter and many other students to work hard,
expand their horizons and think big. She frequently told her class, "Any
boy in this classroom could grow up to be President of the United
States".
The mule barn at the Carter farm in Archery, Georgia.
Before he started school, all Carter's playmates were the children of his father's black employees.
I checked out the
political memorabilia store in one of the six or seven stores of downtown
Plains. They have a huge and amazing collection of pro- and anti- candidate
products like original bumper stickers, books, posters and buttons for all
major presidential campaigns going back to at least JFK. I also tried peanut
ice cream at the peanut products store.
The main street in Plains, Georgia has about six shops, the train station, gas station, post office, peanut warehouse and a small hotel. That's it.
The Windsor Hotel on
the main street in Americus was full of Carter fans Saturday night, but I was
able to move over there on Sunday night. It is a gorgeous three story
nineteenth century Richardsonian Romanesque red brick structure. Breakfast on
the second floor in the Rosemary and Thyme breakfast room was a treat.
I am so glad I made
the trip to Plains.
