Today's funeral for former President Jimmy Carter follows nearly two weeks of reminiscence about the legacy of the Georgia Democrat who held the White House for one term in the late '70s. Some of it has been hagiographic, especially in light of the dramatic contrast between Carter's genuine faith decency and Donald Trump's sociopathy and obviously fake Christianity. But much of the remembrance has been refreshingly nuanced, reflecting both on Carter's failures in office alongside his many accomplishments, many in his post-presidency. One of the most important legacies he'll leave behind is a complex one, though it is rooted in one of Carter's best traits, his commitment to anti-racism. During his presidency, Carter inadvertently revealed a fundamental truth about white evangelical culture: its guiding star is not faith or morality, but racism.
Hard as it may be to believe, Carter won the majority of evangelical voters in 1976. Being a white evangelical Christian from the South, he read to many as one of theirs. Things shifted in 1978, however, over an issue that seems obscure now, but was a big deal to white evangelicals at the time: school desegregation.
