His undergraduate work was done where my father and my brother 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 that he minds the resources of the president ial libraries. He has come here to the Carter Library and has gone through and found a very interesting document that other people have not seen before and he has done that at other president ial libraries. Combined with that he is also mind the resources of the archives on various evangelical organizations that have become involved in politics. And in addition to that on top of his Research Skills come he , he is an excellent writer. Ive had the privilege of reading many of his books including the one thats just come out. And i can tell you that as much as i followed the subjects and have done my own research there were many points 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 in the 1970s, and 1980s, and in case you have forgotten, there were significant differences. And you want to know about the sort of transition to the time when jimmy carter was president of the 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 and as i say i read it personally and found it very fascinating and i think all of you will, too. Hearing some comments by the author himself to give you randy balmer. [applause] randy thank you for that kind introduction. Its wonderful to be back here. I did a lot of archival work at the Carter Center and the last time i was here the museum was being refurbished and i spent more than three hours this afternoon going through the exhibits. The guards had to chase me away. I was engrossed by it to them and it was quite a remarkable experience. I probably learned a few things that i didnt know before going through that museum. I want to talk about carter tonight, obviously. I want to tell you first of all my interest as indicated. I went to a Small College in northern illinois. I went to a small School CalledTrinity College in deerfield, illinois in the 1970s. And it was during my time as an undergraduate at the jimmy carter burst out of the natural scene. I had grown up as an evangelical and was attending an evangelical college, and what was so remarkable to me is that he talked ontalked an unabashedly about being a bornagain christian, which is what we use to describe ourselves because we were always cowering when we did that, a bit ashamed of it, and jimmy carter wasnt. Jimmy carter came on the scene and said im a bornagain christian and this was for me and many other is a kind of wakeup call. Here was a man that was running for president and being taken seriously and who was able to talk about his faith in very unabashed and unapologetic terms. So i began taking notice of that. I 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. And over the last decade or so i have spent a good bit of time researching when my schedule permitted me to do that. The authors are always making claims for themselves which is not justified, but it is i think the first biography of jimmy carter to take his faith seriously as a way of understanding both himself, his conduct in president and beyond, but also the very turbulent religious times in which he lived. Thats what i want to talk about a little today because i think that is the core of the book. I will do a few things in terms of background. Im sure many of you know the details already. Jimmy carter was born october 1, 1924 in georgia. He is the first president ever born in the hospital because his mother was a kind of itinerant nurse and he was able to be born in a hospital for 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. And then he was commissioned into the navy and accepted in the Nuclear Submarine program , and then in 1953, his father James Earl Carter senior succumbed 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 regulatory moment because he saw what his fathers life that meant to so many people, things he didnt know about his father. The time for example that he provided money to the family so they could buy new clothes to celebrate their daughters graduation from high school, something they couldnt have afforded to do other times. S he carried peoples mortgages when they were too poor and too strapped to do so. The time that he had extended credit to various people in the family. And jimmy carter returned to his posting in schenectady, new york one thing to have a life much more like his father to do the kind of good things that his father had done in the community. The one dissent about the decision to leave the navy was Rosalynn Carter who was not amused by this development. Apparently as nearly as i can tell and there are people in the audience that can confirm or deny this, the car trip from schenectady new york to plains georgia was conducted in almost total silence between the two. Two very strongwilled people. And in this case, jimmy carter won that debate or that argument. But apparently the word divorce profit of at least once in the course of that transition. Carter of course takes over the business, not successful in the than 200, less 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 of the community, including on the Sumter County school board and then on his 38th birthday october 31, 1962, jimmy carter gets out of bed and puts on his sunday trousers rather than his work trousers and goes to america to fight over the withoutstate line having consulted rosalynn before doing so. When i asked mr. Carter about this about a year ago in planes plains, georgia, he said, i cant believe i did that. Because he wouldnt dream of making such a decision like that today without consulting his wife. But times are very different in 1962 then they are now in the 21st century. The election of course is contested because of the widespread corruption in the county. I forget the numbers but they are in the museum. There were Something Like 420 ballots that were cast 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 quite a remarkable day for georgia politics. Carter of course finds out about this and he is morally outraged. If you read turning point, which i have to say that is my Favorite Book of his. It bristled with moral outrage and righteous indignation and he had been robbed of his election and the campaign in january of 1963. Carter then runs for governor in he runs what would qualify at 1966. The time as a racial moderate beaten by all people, lester maddox. , of course known for his segregationist ways the day after Lyndon Johnson got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 leicester agreed in the restaurant with the 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 he uses this to catapult himself to the governorship. He lost 22 pounds in that campaign because of his vigorous campaigning. He lost a lot of money, the family put a lot of money into that campaign and he returns to plains not really sure what hes going to do. There are family accounts that have him Walking Around the fields and just not knowing how , and very often with tears in his eyes. And then of course the following year he has a famous encounter with his sister, and he has a recommitment of his life to jesus, which seems to be very transformative. He speaks of that experience not as a bornagain experience that occurred back in 1935 at the Baptist Church, but a renewal and rejuvenation of his faith. On the heels of that, jimmy carter goes on the two mission trips, one to pennsylvania with other baptist laymen going around knocking on doors to tell again inout jesus, and springfield, massachusetts in november of that year with a cubanamerican pastor from brookland. This was again a very informative moment for jimmy carter. At the end of the week together , carter asks the reverend you know, how why it is he is such a strong christian, strong believer, and how he is so effective dealing with other people. And he tells carter that 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 many times over the course of his life as being a formative moment. He never loses sight of the Georgia State house. And in 1970, he launches yet another campaign, this time successful, for governor of georgia. Court theer does segregationist vote in this campaign. And the final days of the campaign he endorses lester because the governors of georgia could have succeeded themselves. Carter endorsed him and seeks and wins some of the segregationist endorsements here in georgia. He is uneasy about that and there is good evidence for that. He tells the head of the united niekro college fund, you wont like my campaign, but you will like my administration. There is some evidence i think that it is uncompetitive but i think that there is some evidence after that campaign carter apologizes to his primary opponent in that campaign, former governor carl sanders, for carters conduct during the it was not exactly a sterling moment in the life of and i thinkr, that he realizes that and regrets it. He takes the office as the 1971 andof georgia in famously says the people of georgia that the time for racial demonstration is over. This is in part what elevates him in terms of the national profile. The New York Times picked up on that and the following day in the front page there is an article about the inauguration governor, what he said to the people of georgia. And within several weeks or actually a couple of months Time Magazine puts him on the cover as an example of a new south governor that is a racial governor. I have to mention that article , but carter is the one who is on the cover of Time Magazine. Carter almost immediately begins to think about running for president after being the governor of georgia, only who knows maybe a few days before he begins looking towards the larger horizons. And 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 other advisors and begins to plot out is rise to the presidency four years later. Of 1973, theing beginning of 1974, the remarkable events took place within six months of each other. And here the narrative is going to urge a little bit more towards religion and faith. Over thanksgiving weekend in 1973 in chicago, illinois at the ymca at the southside of chicago, 55 evangelicals meet at the ymca and hammer out a document called the chicago declaration that evangelical social concern. This is a remarkable document in many ways, because the strain of evangelicalism that is offered in this document, and by the way, it is available on the web you can look at it for your self, is part of what i call progressive evangelicalism that takes this mandate i believe from the new testament that talked about having peacemakers , to turn the other cheek, and so forth. But historically, the antecedent was evangelicals in the 19th century into the 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 that historians call the second great awakening around the turn of the 19th century, reformas an evangelical impulse that really did shape American Society in profound ways over the course of the 19th century. One of the People Associated with this is probably the most important associated with this movement. This movement sought to reform the norms. Ording to they were very much involved in abolitionism to try to eradicate slavery, but they were also involved in such issues as prison reform. The whole idea of the a penitentiary came into vogue at the time. The idea of a place where a criminal could become penitent and then we hope constructively rejoin society in a much more salutary way. The issue of equal rights for women, including voting rights, which of course in the 19th century was a radical idea. Evangelicals were very much involved in the formation of the common schools, what we think about as Public Education today. 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 in the movement would be the campaign which was inaugurated by the presbyterian minister in connecticut because they thought dueling was barbaric. There are peace crusades in the early part of the century and even a campaign of gun control. Imagine that in the early part of the 19th century. All of these were motivated and animated by evangelicals who were trying to make the world a better place. And what i find unites all of these reform impulses is that they were directed towards those on the margins of society. Those that jesus called the least of these. This is a tradition within the american evangelicalism that most people dont know about but very much in the 19th century of it was a robust tradition it really did serve to rehabilitate and reform in American Society particularly ways, the antebellum period, but it moved over into the 20th century as well. People like William Jennings bryan, who was an evangelical and threetime failed democratic nominee for president , was very much conscious about womens rights and workers rights to organize and 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 the progressive evangelicalism which it kind of fallen away from various reasons which i would be happy to go into later , but i dont want to spend time dealing with that right now. And 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 early wasch in the 1970s 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. So that is one events that took place as i said in november of 1973. Less than six months later in athens, georgia, somewhere around here. , there was an event at the university of Georgia Law School , and law day, as im sure you know is a tradition at the university of Georgia Law School. The law school invites dignitaries Like Supreme Court justices and attorneys general and the senators into various people tos venerable address them. The keynote speaker for that address was the senator from massachusetts, edward kennedy, and the other speaker at that address was the governor of georgia, jimmy carter. In the morning, kennedy gives his keynote address which would 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 a person who he quotes very often throughout his life, at least since his time as the governor of georgia. He said this had the sad duty of politics was to establish justice in his sinful world. And carters quoted that passage very often. He said the second formative influence on him was the greek theologianellknown bob dylan, whose song in particular aint going to work on maggies farm no more was a important song about farmers. He goes on to talk about the fact that among the politicians and particularly lobbyists in washington, the deck was stacked against ordinary folks. Corporations in particular, had money to hire lobbyists who themselves were appointed to regulatory agencies regulating their own businesses and corporations, and how that was fundamentally unfair. He talked also about georgias prison population, which he had taken an interest in when he was governor of georgia and said that overwhelmingly the present prison population in georgia consisted of those that were poor and couldnt afford adequate representation. Affluentwho were more were able to in effect buy their way out of the justice system. And he wound up his presentation by sending some of the populist themes that he was already beginning to rehearse for his potential president ial run in 1976. In the course of his remarks, he noticed a journalist in the audience looking up. ,e figured this journalist hunter asked thompson from Rolling Stone magazine, was simply going going out of the parking lot to refresh whatever adult beverage he was consuming that day, but it turned out that Hunter Thompson was going to his car to retrieve his tape recorder because he wanted to record something extraordinary politician who , a dared to tell the truth. Thompson later described carters s