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Written by Kristen Moulton The Salt Lake Tribune
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Thursday, 23 December 2010 18:32 |
SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) — For a man who evangelized foreign leaders and taught Sunday school while U.S. president, Jimmy Carter has some strong words for what he sees as an “excessive melding of religion and politics.”
And it began, he said, with the denomination he called home for more than seven decades: the Southern Baptist Convention.
“It's now metastasized to other religions, where an actual affiliation between the denomination and the more conservative elements of the Republican Party is almost official,” Carter said during a stop here to promote his new book, “White House Diary.”
“There are pastors openly calling for members to vote a certain way,” the 86-year-old ex-president said. “That's a serious breakdown in the principle of separation of church and state.”
Though Carter criticizes conservative Christians' influence on politics, he argues religions and religious people have a right -- and a duty -- to speak up on moral issues. The U.S. Constitution simply says states cannot establish religion, he said. It does not silence religious voices.
“White House Diary” condenses 5,000 pages of journals Carter kept during his presidency, and offers glimpses of Jimmy Carter, the Baptist.
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