Jimmy Carter is deeply religious

and he has always been very open about his faith. Good for him, and good for Obama for being the same way. As long as their progressive values aren't compromised, it's nice to know religion is not OWNED by the GOP.

there's no problem with that. the problem is compromising or letting the religious right frame an issue.

Obama is actually trying to make fundies comfortable with a progressive agenda. Ain't that a beautiful thing?

Being deeply religious : Becoming a bigot :: Smoking : Getting lung cancer

As we all know, many people who smoke never get lung cancer. But, it does increase the risks.

Jimmy Carter was a devoted Evangelical who kept his faith out of other people's business.

Remember Jimmy's interview with Playboy?

Oh yeah, he never did.

Or the time when Carter said he wanted to establish a Kingdom on Earth.

Oops, he never said that either.

There is a difference between having strong faith, as Carter does, and using one's faith to pander to voters, as Obama does.

In that book he expresses the pain at having to decide to leave the church he had belonged to for a long time because of the leadership's move to political enterprise rather than traditional church endeavors. It is a gut wrenching chapter.

and no, I haven't read that book yet. :)

I wonder how it would fly today.

http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/election/index.php?ad_id=906

Thanks, jeff!

That clip said that Carter is a deeply religious man, but it doesn't show him suggesting that Americans should pray over their decisions.

Who suggested that "Americans should pray over their decisions"?

If you're more comfortable with a campaign commercial by Carter, entitled "Bible", celebrating the fact that, above all else, he is a man of faith than you are with Obama's defense of a pro-choice abortion position to a bunch of "fundies"...that's obviously your prerogative.

***

By the way, here's some recent material regarding Carter's position on abortion

Preacher Jimmy says drop abortion, go to church

Former President Jimmy Carter has what he thinks is a winning message for Democrats in 2008: Stop obsessing about and politicizing abortion and go to church. "I think that to let deeply religious people and the moderates on social issues like abortion feel like the Democratic Party cares about them and understands them is a crucial element that has to be inserted for victory in 2008," says the moderate Democrat and Sunday-school teacher. On a book tour to promote his latest, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, Carter has been speaking out against liberals almost as much as he has against the policies of President Bush.

But few issues get him sputtering about his party more than abortion and the problem party leaders have relating to churchgoing folks. "I think our party leaders, some of them, are overemphasizing the abortion issue," he says. "Many Democrats, like me, have some concern, say, about late-term abortion, where you kill a baby as it's emerging from the mother's womb and so forth. And to make that a litmus test of democracy, I think, hurts our party."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/archive/november2005.htm

suggesting that I need to be prayerful when I make my decisions. I don't mind the fact that politicians are religious as much as I loath it when they use religion in secular issues.

Plus he was a big fan of deregulation, which turned out to be the start of the neolib disaster we are now stuck with.

In fact, the vast majority of people in the United States are religious. Without exception, every important election in our country is decided by religious folks.