Column
Reflections on Nobel Laureate Jimmy Carter
By ROBERT F. DRINAN
The near universal reaction to the
naming of former President Carter as a Nobel Laureate was jubilation. At last
this religious and dedicated ex-president was being recognized for his
extraordinary achievements and aspirations.
Jimmy Carter’s new status as a truly global figure will
prompt a re-evaluation of his role as a tireless devotee of international human
rights and as the most religious president in U.S. history.
In the Democratic primaries of 1976 I worked hard for the late
Congressman Mo Udall. In the turbulent early months of 1976 the peanut farmer
from Georgia did not win much recognition from liberals in the Northeast. His
victory over President Gerald Ford did little to increase the expectations of
mainstream Democrats.
But Carter’s remarkable record on civil rights and human
rights may now be appreciated much more fully.
Carter helped Congress to approve the Equal Rights Amendment as an
amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That meant that two-thirds of both houses
sent the amendment to the states for ratification. This could never have
happened without the political power of the Carter White House. When Congress
extended the 7-year period of ratification by another 30 months, the persuasion
of the Carter administration was essential. If Carter had been reelected, his
administration might well have raised the ratification states from 35 to the
necessary 38.
When Carter proposed that Congress support a constitutional
amendment to give the District of Columbia full representation in Congress
there were howls of ridicule. This would mean, in essence, that two black
Democrats would be added to the U.S. Senate. But the moral power of the Carter
White House persuaded two-thirds of both houses to send the measure to the
states. This proposal could possibly have been ratified by the necessary 38
states if Carter had been reelected.
The achievements of the Carter White House in the area of human
rights will forever make Carter’s four years one of the great eras in
American history. In 1975 President Ford reluctantly signed a bill that made
the implementation of human rights a part of America’s policy. Carter took
human rights and made them the soul of U.S. foreign policy. Despite all of the
limitations in the execution of that policy since 1980, the exaltation of human
rights has become a permanent and powerful part of America’s relationships
to the world.
Carter’s books since he left the White House -- especially
those on religion -- constitute a remarkable contribution. One of the books on
faith reads almost like the Imitation of Christ. Carter is a man with a
deep sense of the personal presence of God in his life. He is a devout
Evangelical. It is the person of Christ that is central rather than the church
or the Eucharist.
Of all of my meetings with Carter in his White House years, the
one I recall the most is a conversation at a Christmas dinner for the Congress
held on Dec. 14, 1980. Carter had been defeated by Ronald Reagan, and I was
leaving Congress after 10 years because the pope changed canon law. President
Carter, standing next to Mrs. Carter, reached out to me in the receiving line
and said, “Father, God wants us both to do something different, and it
will be more important.”
The Nobel Peace Prize for Mr. Carter has made that prediction come
true.
Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan is a professor at Georgetown
University Law School. His e-mail address is drinan@law.George
town.edu
National Catholic Reporter, October 25,
2002
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