Baptist leaders are remembering Jimmy Carter as an example of faithfulness, compassion and justice and advocate for religious liberty.

Mr. Carter said his spiritual rebirth was an “evolutionary thing” rather than “a flash of light or a sudden vision of God speaking.”

Jimmy Carter was an evangelical. A liberal evangelical. A liberal evangelical in the age before the Christian Right supported a conservative revolution that swept Republican Ronald Reagan into power.

Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the pioneering Southern rock band, said its members saw their fellow Georgian as an honest, inspiring figure.

I can tell you without any equivocation that the number one abuse of human rights on Earth, strangely not addressed quite often, is the abuse of women and girls,” the former President said.

The service, which lasted roughly two hours, was packed with heartfelt and vivid remembrances that recalled both a powerful president and politician as well as a thoughtful and giving man of faith.

Jimmy Carter, a progressive Baptist, balanced faith with politics, advocating for church-state separation while evolving on social issues, shaping evangelical roles in U.S. public life.

President Jimmy Carter shakes hands with the crowd after delivering an address at Wait Chapel concerning the Soviet threat, March 17, 1978. To the right of Carter is Fifth District Congressman Steve Neal. More than 50 years after filling out his ballot, Jimmy Walker freely admits it.

Carter was one of the most explicitly religious presidents, but his rise in politics came during a transformative era in American Christianity.

Here are five interesting facts about former President Jimmy Carter They include his service in the U S Navy, his marriage lasting longer than that of any other president and his work with Habitat

Former President Jimmy Carter was remembered Thursday as a man ahead of his time who leaves his country and the world better off for his service. Georgia’s only president thus far, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100,