This is what democracy looks like. Cspan. Powered by cable. During his time in Office President jimmy carter and his family attended the First Baptist church at washington, d. C. They joined in january 1977 and president carter attended services there more than 70 times during his presidency. Yes. The carters obviously wanted to find a place to go to church. There are number of Baptist Churches in washington. The First Baptist church is actually the closest to the white house. And, so, they decided to come here and we were so grateful and blessed that they did. There was a process that they had to go through. What was that process . Thats right. We love to invite people. It isth been a baptist practice for a very long time. Somebody feels god leading them to step into a congregation. They had to join the church. Not like joining the club. Entrusting yourself into the care of a congregation and say as long as we are here, we will be here. Following the inauguration they stepped forward and presented themselves to membership. Just like everybody. They filled out a little blue simple card. It is just amazing to see the president s signature appeared amy came requesting baptism. Once a month president carter taught ach sunday school class. Audio recordings from some of the classes. I have had a great and growing personal friendship, as all of you know. We see the personal involvement of all of this and an integral part of a christians life. Friendship an what you mean to me. It is good to have a sunday School Teacher that becomes an instant part of your personal and family life. Especially when you are living in the white house and severed a lot of your relationships back hat provided stability for you. Performing that function in the life of my family. Always seems to pick out a difficult subject for me to teach. [laughter] jesus and the spirit. A lot of people here think they can do a much better job of teaching this lesson than i can, but i will call him for help. Paul christian just having to live and to face a certain death creates enough anxiety for a human being. And that a church in its teachings about christ should not add anxiety to a persons consciousness. We have enough anxiety as it is. Cthe ministry of christ, the relationship between us in christ should not be built on a fear appeared that is deliberately instilled in our heartsts. Of god or of christ. Another theologian, he says that anxiety is a basis for all human creativity. That is a very farreaching statement. I wonder if anybody can see what he is trying to say. Anxiety, which is kind of a negative word is a basis f all human creativity. Does anybodyver thought about that . A constant searching for ourselves. One aspect of anxiety then is an absence of satisfaction with the way things are. Those of us attending the lesson, we got here early. The strokewh of 930 when the tlimousines arrived at the frot door here and they ushered people in of the president s family and up to the balcony. There were many people already sitting in the sanctuary. Needless to say the balcony was full of people eager to hear. If you think about jesus life and his relationship with people around him, what would be the one word that would come to your mind . I know there would be a lot of different words, but just call out a few. Love. Okay. Caring. All right. What . Friendship. Compassion. What . [inaudible] devotion. Okay. All of those are very, very good inspiring, what is the present word . Friendship compassion andnd love hadevotion. Anyone else think of a word that does not quite fit in that category . Okay. But trail . Im sorry. Sacrifice. Life. Okay. Certainly getting close. Nobody has gotten the word yet. Joy. No, thats notot it. How many of you studied your lesson . [laughter] okay. There is a word that describes this lesson today. Jesus relationship with the world around him. Also the relationship with the world around him after christ there. A word that describes the relationship between us as christians and the world around us to the degree that we commit our lives to christ. I think what he tried to accomplish was peace and unity even among church people. I think that he was a winner at it because there never was a negative remark. Everybody just raveseo about it. People wanted to be in that class to care what he was saying we did make recordings of it. He was warm and he preached as he saw it. Always with an understanding we were n perfect like the scripture was wanting us to be that there was an answer to that. He cares about people and taking care of the needs of the people and not just the people in the unitedor states, but people arod the united states. Onhis heart broke when there was war in disharmony. You could tell it did. However, he never brought his problems to the class although he never stopped asking for prayer, but he did not burden us with those problems. He wanted us to see the best side of life. President carter took time at some of his sunday School Classes to discuss major events during his presidency like the campaign accord between egypt and israel in 1978. It is always nice to come back from a twoweek vacation to camp david. [laughter] i think some of the most unpleasant moments of my life occurred in the last two weeks. And, of course some of the most present. One of the great things about the meeting was i was meeting with two leaders. Deeply devout and religious men. Who spent a great portion of their time at camp david in prayer. Who believed that they and i worshiped the same god. Referring often to guidance froa god almighty. He and reagan both descendents from abraham. Brothers not only in religious beliefs, but also by blood. That was one of the things that i believeka gave us kind of a clear unshakable purpose. We all believe god wanted us to work towards peace. One of the few things i wish we agreed first. [laughter] in a private meeting after a ace treaty assigned and i predict it will be assigned withoute delay that we may meet on mount sinai and reagan immediately agreed thatt would e a wonderful gesture to combine three different kinds of people, three different races, three different religions in a public demonstration of a commitment of peace among all people. I dont know if it will work out that way. Building on top of that mountain i think i will be a wonderful gesture. This morninger we are talking about a very Important Alliance with modernn people. Also ancient people. We tend to think that tension concern, worry, burdens, our unique twoway fastchanging modern world. As you read pauls letters to the philippians, we see how he dealt with this problem of worry and the divisions that come among those whom he loved because of the pressures of their own life. There is no doubt that they lived in fear. Because they were christians and that early day when it was not an acceptable thing to do. They were religious revolutionariesll. Perhaps even meeting in secret on occasion. Paul recognized then that one of the causes of the build up in a persons life of uncontrollable fear and tension was rapid change. We all tend to want to maintain the status quo when our lives are uprooted to move to another community. Concern. No matter how the life of the prospect for the new home may be , one got a substantial promotion and transfer. As part of that, we tend to inventory the blessings of our present house and our neighbors in our church and our children in school and our friends. So, just change of location. Changing times. Also causing great concern. We all read books recently about not only are times changing, but the rate of change are greater than ever before. I think that that is certainly true. I pointed out that my life on the farm as a boy was much closer to farming than it was similar in just a 30 or 40 year career. More change in you had in the previous 2000 years. That causes us to be upset. Uncertaintyy. What will come next. It is also amount of great concern. Bonnie jorgensen is a longtime member ofry first baptt church. Her uncle kept a diary recalling some of the serious and more lighthearted moments. This is from august 6 of 1978 he says president and missus carter in class today demonstrators invaded the church and made disturbances by trying to read statements in a loud voice disrupting the sunday i school class. Meeting in the balcony where president carter is. Robin clack had advised them that they were welcome to worship with us quietly, but if there were any disturbances, they would be ejected. One woman immediately rose and commenced to shout. Robin hustled her out and turned her over to the police waiting outside. As soon as possible and had started to take her out, a man who had been sitting next to her rose and started to shout. I came up behind him and locked my arms in his and dragged him out into the aisle. We took him out the front door and turned him again over to the police. W Many Television cameras were outside. I then returned to my post in the sanctuary. This was june 18. President and missus carter were in class and at church. Asking the president to give an impromptu highlight of the story he did so and it was given and soft and modern tones. When it was through, fred greg said we will now arise and be dismissed explaining that the president had so perfectly covered all the points of the lesson. Irene sat behind the corridors in church and said amy tugged at her tooth during the service. When she pulled it out, she crawled over two or three people and handed it to the president. He took it and after a few minutes handed it over to missus carter who then put it in her purse. After losing the 1980 president ial election to ronald reagan, president carter received a letter of support from first bap just church approved unanimously by its memberss. If i dont get emotional, two moret months. I cannot sustain it that long. [laughter] it is always remarkable when they pass something unanimously. [laughter] that makes a beautiful message and the proclamation even more dear to us because it is so rare i am very grateful for a chance to be a member of this church. Exhilarating and calming and satisfying gratifyingg experiene for us to make friends here who have accepted us not as special people who live in the white house, but as neighbors and fellows fellow believers in christ. You have let me teach. He would Say Something about my teaching ability, but i notice he did not mention that. [laughter] it has given me a chance to study and to stay in touch with gods word and my own deep faith in christ. The days that we are not here, we ordinarily are at camp david or somewhere else. We always have church services. Camp david, a chaplain comes in from a nearby military base and he has a service for us family and justd a few people. We were out campaigning out traveling the world, we always made a point to go to a church on sunday morning to worship. I think among other things, what thisl church gave to them during what we could all imagine just an incredibly stressful time was his sense of normalcy. That is what they told the congregation upon their leaving in a letter. They said, you have made our lives normal lives. That meant a great deal to our congregation. Amy carter was actually baptized here. Tell us the story of the baptism she was baptized in the baptistery behind me. The pastor baptized her, i am told by a dear man who browned the soundun system that day that the secret Service Agent was pretty nervous about her being put under. I had to ensure that the pastor would indeed raise her up again. President carter stood here in front of the pillar for security reasons. President jimmy carter standing next to this column taught the couples class assembled in this balcony on numerous occasions. During the period of january 1977 to january 1981. His last statement in this final teaching role on january the 41981 and this is his last statement, if i may read it. If we just act like jesus, we would be good christians and if we try hard and be understanding , god will forgive us if we fail. That is president jimmy carter, his last statement in the balcony. Weekends on cspan2 are an intellectual feast. Every saturday American History tv documents america story. On sunday, book tv brings you the latest of Nonfiction Books and authors. 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