Election and his defeat in 1980 by mr. Reagan. Mr. Balmer spoke at the Jimmy Carter Museum in atlanta back in 2014. Welcome. Its a pleasure for me tonight to introduce randall balmer, professor of arts and sciences at dartmouth college. I have followed his career for a long time. His under graduate work was done at a school where my father was a dean and my brother joe attended that school at the same time. And randy has turned into one of our great, modern american historians. One of the things that makes him great is he really minds the resources of president ial libraries. He really mines the resources of president ial libraries. He has come to the carter library, gone through and found very interesting documents that other people had not seen before. And he has done that at other president ial libraries. Combined with that, he has also mined the resources of the archives on various evangelical organizations that have become involved in politics. And on top of his research skills, he is an excellent writer. Ive had the privilege of reading many of his books including the one thats just come out. I can tell you that as much as i have followed these subjects and done my own research, that there were many points where i came across new information and said, wow. That really explains whats going on. So if you want to understand the difference in the United States between the 1970s and the 19 l 0s and in case youve forgotten there were very significant differences, and you want to know about the sort of transition to a time when jimmy carter was president to a time when Ronald Reagan was president , if you want to understand the role of billy graham in american politics or the role of Jerry Falwell in american politics, this is the book for you. I highly recommend it. As i say, ive read it personally and found it very fascinating. I think all of you will, too. Before you rush out to buy the book you have the privilege of hearing some comments by the author, himself. So i give you randy balmer. [ applause ] college, a Small College in northern illinois, not wheaton college. A lot of people think i went to wheaton but i wasnt good enough. I went to a small School CalledTrinity College in deerfield, illinois in the early 1970s. It was during my time there as an under graduate that jimmy carter burst on to the national scene. Now, i had grown up as an evangelical and was attending evangelical college and what was so remarkable to me was carter talked unabash adley about being a bornagain christian which was the term we used to describe ourselves except we were always cowering when we did that and a bit ashamed. Jimmy carter wasnt. He came on the scene and said yes im a bornagain christian. Yes ive given my life to jesus. For me and many other evangelicals it was a kind of wakeup call. Here was a man running for president and being taken seriously as a candidate who was able to talk about his faith in very unabashed and unapologetic terms. I began taking notice of that. I have followed his career rather closely over the years and resolved at some point i wanted to write a book about jimmy carter. I have to say ive been kind of brewing with this idea for probably at least two decades now. Over the last decade or so i spent a good bit of time doing the research and then finally got around to writing this book when my schedule permitted me to do that. I want to say that i think i authors are always making claims for themselves, which is maybe not justified. It is i think the first biography of jimmy carter to take his faith seriously as a way of understanding both himself, his conduct as president , and beyond, but also the very turbulent, religious times in which he lived. And thats what i want to talk about a little bit today. I think that is really the core of the book. Ill j uft do a few things in terms of background. Im sure many of you know the details already. Jimmy carter was born october 1st, 1924, in plains, georgia. He is to cite a bit of trivia the first president ever born in a hospital because his mother Lillian Carter was a kind of itinerant nurse and he was able to be born in a hospital. Aagain, the first time in American History. Jimmy carter went to Plains High School and went on to the u. S. Naval academy which had been his dream ever since he was a boy to do that, and then he was commissioned into the navy, accepted in the Nuclear Submarine program, and then in 1953 his father earl carter sr. , James Earl Carter sr. Seccumbed to his two pack a day habit and jimmy carter was granted leave to go back to plains and attend his fathers bedside. That was for him a revelation moment because he saw what his fathers life had meant to so many people in plains. Things he did not know about his father earl carter. The time for example that he provided money to a family so they could buy new clothes to celebrate their daughters graduation from high school, something they couldnt have done, afforded to do otherwise. The time that he carried peoples mortgages when they were too poor and too strapped to do so. The times that he extended credit to various people in the family. Jimmy carter returned to his posting in sknew york wanting t have a life like his father and doing the good things his father had done in the community. The one discenter about his decision to leave the navy was rose carter not amused by this development. Probably people in the audience can confirm or deny this, probably the car trip from new york to plains, georgia, was conducted in almost total silence between the two. Two very strongwilled people. In this case, jimmy carter won that debate or arcmengument but apparently the word divorce cropped up at least once in the course of that transition for them. Carter, of course, takes over the business, not successful his first year. Less than 200 profit for the carter business interests but then he quickly begins to build this into a growing concern. He also begins to look more broadly at service to the community, including service on the Sumter County school board and then on his 38th birthday, october 1st, 1962, jimmy carter gets out of bed and puts on his sunday trousers rather than his work trousers and goes to file for the Georgia StateSenate Without having consulted rose lind before doing so. When i asked mr. Carter about this about a year ago down in plains he said i still cant believe i did that. Because he wouldnt dream of making such a decision like that today without consulting his wife. Times were very different in 1962 than they are now in the 21st century. Td election is contested because of widespread corruption in the county. I forget the numbers in the museum but there were Something Like 420 ballots passed in the county and only 300 some registered voters. And for some reason in fact the voters managed to vote in alphabetical order down to the second and third letters in their last names. It was really quite a remarkable day. He finds out about this and is morally outraged. If you read turning point i think my Favorite Book of his it just bristles with moral outrage and righteous indignation because he had been robbed of his election or apparently so and mounts a campaign to win the seat which he is granted in january of 1963. Carter then runs for governor in 1966. He runs as what qualifies in georgia at the time as a racial moderate and is beaten by of all people Lester Maddux. Lester maddux was notorious in georgia of course for his segregationist ways on the day after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Lester Carter greeted three africanamericans in the parking lot of his restaurant the pit crick restaurant with an ax handle threatening to drive them away or driving them away from eating in his restaurant because he did not want a desegregated restaurant. Of course Lester Maddux uses this to catapult himself to the governorship. Jimmy carter lost 22 nounds that campaign because of the sig rouse campaigning, lost a lot of money. The family put a lot of money into that campaign. And he returns to plains really not sure what he is going to do. There are family accounts that have him Walking Around in the fields around plains and just not knowing how to proceed. And very often with tears in his eyes. And then of course the following year he has his famous encounter with his sister Ruth Carter Stapleton a pentecostal evangelist and has a recommitment of his life to jesus which does seem to be very transformative. He speaks of that experience not as his born again experience which occurred back in 1935 at the Plains Baptist Church but as a renewal, rejuvenation of his faith. On the heels of that, jimmy carter goes on two mission trips, one to lock haven, pennsylvania with other baptist laymen going around knocking on doors to tell people about jesus and, again, in springfield, massachusetts in november of that year with a cuban american pastor by the name of eloy cruz from brooklyn or bronx, looking at steve to help me out here. I believe its brooklyn. And this was again a very formative moment for jimmy carter. At the end of their week together, carter asked reverend cruz, you know, why how it is he is such a strong christian and believer and so effective dealing with other people and he tells carter the secret to a life of faith or being a good christian is two things to love god and to love the person in front of you at any given time. And he repeats this, carter does, many times over the course of his life as being again a formative moment for him. He never loses sight of the Georgia State house. In 1970 he launches yet another campaign, this time successful, to be governor of georgia. This is not a pretty campaign and not much is said about this by mr. Carter and others. But jimmy carter does court the segregationist vote in this campaign and the final days of the campaign he endorses Lester Maddux who is running for Lieutenant Governor at that time governors of georgia could not succeed themselves. And carter endorses Lester Maddux and seeks and wins some of the segregationist endorsements here in georgia. He is uneasy about that even at the time. I think there is good evidence for that. He tells Vernon Jordan at that time, head of the United Negro College fund, you wont like my campaign but you will like my administration. And there is some evidence that i think it is inconclusive but i think some evidence that after that campaign carter apologizes to his primary opponent in that Campaign Former governor carl sanders for carters conduct during the campaign. But it was not exactly a sterling moment in the life of jimmy carter and i think he realizes that and regrets it. He takes office as governor of georgia january 12th, 1971, and famously says to the people of georgia, the time for Racial Discrimination is over. This is in part what really elevates him in terms of a national profile. The New York Times picked up on that and the following day above the fold there is an article about jimmy carter and his inauguration as governor, what he said to the people of georgia, and within several weeks, actually a couple months, Time Magazine puts him on the cover as an example of a new south governor, as a post racial governor. Also mentioned in that article were dale bumpers of arkansas and ruben ascue of florida but carter was on the cover of Time Magazine. Carter almost immediately begins to think about running for president after being governor of georgia, only maybe even who knows a few days. Before he begins looking toward larger horizons. In fact, about the time within a day or two of George Mcgoverns cataclysmic loss to Richard Nixon in the president ial campaign of 1962 carter sits down with hamilton jerden and other advisers and begins to plot his rise to the presidency four years later. At the end of 1973, and the beginning of 1974, two remarkable events took place within six months of each other. Here the narrative is going to verge a little bit more toward religion and faith. Over thanksgiving weekend in 1973, in chicago, illinois, at the wabash ymca in the south side of chicago, 55 evangelicals meet at the ymca and hammer out a document called the chicago declaration of evangelical social concern. This is a remarkable document. I think in many ways. Because the strain of evangelicalism that is offered in this document and it is by the way available on the web. You can look at it for yourself. Is part of what i call progressive evangelicalism, which takes its mandate i believe from the new testament when jesus talked about having his followers care for the least of these, to be peace makers, turn the other cheek, and so forth. But also, historically the antecedent was evangelicals in the 19th century and early 20th centuries who are very much concerned about those on the margins of society. In the antebellum period in particular coming out of an event historians called the second great awakening around the turn of the 19th century there was an evangelical reform impulse that really did reshape American Society in profound ways over the course of the 19th century. Charles granderson finney would be one of the People Associated with this, probably the most important Person Associated with this movement. But this movement sought to Reform Society according to the norms of godliness. They were very much involved of course in abolitionism to try to eradicate the scourge of slavery. But they were also involved in such issues as prison reform. The whole idea of a penitentiary came into vogue at this time. The idea of a place where criminal could become penitent and then we hope constructively rejoin society in a much more sa sail salutory way. The equal rights for women. It was a radical idea in the 19th century. Very much involved in common schools, what we think of as public education, as a way for those on the bottom rungs of society to aspire to a better life, to try to aspire to move into the middle class. Other campaigns associated with this would be the campaign against duelling inaugurated by a presbyterian minister pardon me congregationist minister up in connecticut because he thought it was barbaric. There were peace cruise aids in the early 19th century and even a campaign of gun control in the early part of the 19th century. All of these were motivated and animated by evangelicals trying to make the world a better place. What i find unites all of these reform impulses is that they were directed toward those on the margins of society. Those jesus called the least of these. This is the tradition within american evangelicalism that most people dont know about very much. But in the 19th century it was a robust tradition. As i said, it really did serve to rehabilitate and reform American Society in remarkable ways particularly in the antebellum period, but it moved over into the 20th century as well with people like William Jennings brian who was very much an evangelical, threetime albeit failed democratic nominee for president who was very much conscious about womens rights, workers rights to organize, issues of this sort in the early part of the 20th century. So these people gathering in chicago in november of 1973 actually are trying to rehabilitate this tradition of progressive evangelicalism which had kind of fallen away for various historical reasons id be happy to get into later but i dont want to spend the time dealing with that right now. This document contains statements about militarism, about the yawning gap between rich and poor in American Society, the scandal that people went to bed hungry anywhere in the world, equal rights for women, which again in the early 1970s was something of a radical idea at least among many religious folks. But, also, the lingering scourge of racism. And they sought to address these sorts of things. That is one event that took place. Less than six months later in athens, georgia, there was an event at the university of georgia law School Called law day. And law day is, as im sure many of you know, a rather venerable tradition at the university of georgia law school. The law school invites dignitaries Like Supreme Court justices and attorneys general and senators and various people to address them at law day. The keynote speaker for that event was the senator from massachusetts, edward m. Kennedy, and the undercard speaker was the governor of georgia, jimmy carter. In the morning kennedy gives his keynote address, which had to do with the impeachment proceedings unfolding at that time against Richard Nixon. Carter then addresses the luncheon gathering. Carter begins by saying that there were two very important formative influences on his life in terms of thinkers and theologians. One was ronald neeber who he quotes very often and has throughout his life since his time as governor of georgia. Neeber said the sad duty of politics was to establish justice in a sinful world and carter has quoted that passage very often. But he said the second influence, formative influence on him, was the great and well known theologian bob dylan, whose so