Jimmy Carter, who was the 39th president of the United States has died at 100. While he was a historically unpopular one-term president, many remember the man for his deep faith and Christian values. One pastor, 86-year-old Dr. Bob Maddox, met Carter years ago and had a long friendship with the man. He expressed his fond memories of the man in an interview with local news.
Dr. Maddox who is a pastor, author, and theologian met the Carter’s decades ago. The church he led was close to Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia. Maddox formed a decades-long friendship with former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter. He got to know the Carters, who he described as deeply faithful before the pair ascended to the Whitehouse.
“I have enormous respect for him and Rosalynn both and count it a great privilege to have known President Jimmy Carter. It’s just one of the great moments of my life,” said the Pastor. He stressed that the Carters understood Jesus in that they believed resolutely in helping those in need. Maddox was worried about the tense retaliation Carter had with evangelical leaders.
He said “Jimmy and Rosalynn got Jesus and it was just as natural as breathing to them. It was not some kind of big crusade. But they did use their platform to make a huge difference in the world in just a lot of ways.” He explained that he was so inspired by Carter’s push for peace in the Middle East, that he put pen to paper to defend him
“I had begun to write for the President,” explained the pastor. “This was the speech that Carter used, the famous picture in front of the White House with Begin and Sadat and Carter signing the Mideast Treaty Accords which still holds. And I had come upon a phrase from a friend, ‘peace like war is waged‘. And I built the speech around that phrase, ‘peace like war is waged‘,” Maddox membered.
He described the pressure as “It was unbelievable. Daunting.” He specifically remembered one moment while traveling with the First Lady and other members of the administration aboard Air Force One when he and others heard the shocking news. “This picture here. Word came to us at this moment that the Iranian hostages had been taken,” Maddox said.
Maddox admits Carter had his faults, he said he could be curt and ornery and loathed the schmoozing needed to build consensus on Capitol Hill. The pastor stressed that the First Lady was far more adept at politics. However, he said that the former president’s humanitarian work after leaving the White House remains unmatched by any other president.
Maddox insisted he was “No doubt, the greatest post-president that we’ve had,” Dr. Maddox said in the time since, he’s grown even closer to the Carters, gathering at least once a year. The pastor said we may not have known at the time that faith was deeply embedded in every decision our nation’s 39th president made.“ He incorporated the best of who we are, and we’ll miss that,” he concluded.