The Nation: The Georgia Deacon’s Day

Only three days after accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in Madison Square Garden, Jimmy Carter stood before his regular, adult Sunday-school class in Plains, Ga., explaining the biblical declaration that “God is love.” The contrast between the two settings could hardly have been greater, but Carter was equally at home in both.

Inside the white-steepled Plains Baptist Church, where he has taught Sunday school for the better part of two decades, he took note of the swollen attendance—70 men and women, compared with a usual 22 men. He welcomed the visitors, including a number of journalists, among them TIME’S Stanley Cloud. Apparently referring to the press, Carter quoted the New Testament, 1 John 4: “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.” But Carter stressed that the gathering would not be turned into a political sideshow: “Our only purpose is to study about Christ.”

God Is Love. Deacon Carter spoke without notes for 37 minutes—until the bell rang for morning services. Then he continued for an additional five minutes. By reminding the class of biblical concepts he had used in his acceptance speech, he gave evidence that he does not consider them at all inappropriate in the political forum. Noting that “God is love” was the first Bible verse he had learned as a child, Carter told the Sunday-school class, “As I put it in my acceptance speech the other night, out of love must come one more thing. Does anyone remember?”

“Obedience,” responded one man.

“Simple justice,” Carter corrected him.

Then he had another question: “Who was Christ with?” This time a class member answered correctly: “Sinners.”

Agreed Carter: “Yes. And prostitutes, cheaters, tax collectors, the common people, the dark-skinned people. The average person with whom Christ lived would not speak to those of a different color or religion. Do we do the same thing?” he asked in the church that he and his family vainly tried to integrate nearly 15 years ago. “Quite often, if we go into a Baptist church in the South, there’s a social and economic elite. We’re the prominent people in town. There’s a tendency to think that because I’ve been accepted by God, I’m better than other people.” He suggested that what he termed a humbling ritual might help relieve the “disharmonies” so common in small towns: “One thing I wish the Southern Baptist Church did—as the Primitive Baptists do—is the washing of feet, one of the most moving Christian experiences.”

Near the end of the lesson, Carter again harked back to the climactic night at the Democratic National Convention. Said he: “This is what you need to remember: let us love one another. As Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. said the other night, if you have got any hatred left in your heart, get down on your knees.” He concluded by telling churchgoers that “you do not have to have a preacher. You do not even have to have a Sunday-school teacher. You just have to have a simple faith.”

He joined Wife Rosalynn, Daughter Amy and the congregation for the regular Sunday service. Carter appeared to be somewhat embarrassed as he made his way through the crowd of sightseers and newsmen, sensing that his celebrity is changing traditional patterns of worship in Plains. But he offered a remedy for that too. As he climbed into his car and waved to the crowd of tourists, the nominee yelled, “Next Sunday, y’all go to your own church, hear?”