Friday, March 29, AD 2024 6:05am

Jimmy Carter, Ex-President and Anti-Catholic Bigot, Attacks Pope John Paul II

(In light of Carter’s latest tirade against the Catholic Church, I thought TAC readers would like to see this post from March of last year.)

 

Bad enough that James Earl Carter, Jr. is the worst president this country has had not named James Buchanan or Barack Obama, but he is also an anti-Catholic bigot as his latest mind droppings amply demonstrate:

Former US President Jimmy Carter has disclosed that he had angry exchanges with Pope John Paul II about liberation theology and about the ordination of women.  

The former president said that he complained to the Pontiff about the Church’s “perpetuation of the subservience of women” while Blessed John Paul II was visiting the US in 1978, and “there was more harshness when we turned to the subject of ‘liberation theology.” Carter said that he classified the Pope as a “fundamentalist,” placing him in that category along with Iran’s late Ayatollah Khomeini.  

In the same interview Carter said that “it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies,” although he suggested—“maybe arbitrarily”—that churches should not be required by law to solemnize same-sex unions.  

Carter made his remarks as he introduced a new edition of the Bible with his own study notes, helping readers to follow his understanding of the Scriptures.  

Jimmy, here is a clue for you.  No one cares a rat’s nether regions about what you think about anything.  You were a completely incompetent president and the American people have tried their best to forget you.  You were such a wretched president that even in your own party you are a non-person, and it difficult to embarrass Democrats over anything.  Pope John Paul II was a magnificent pope.  Here is a list of just a few of his accomplishments, although it will take centuries for historians to fully assess his almost 27 year-long papacy, but here are some of the factors that I think they will note.

1.  He largely stopped the post Vatican II chaos-After Vatican II the impulse to transform the Church into an institution fully reflecting the current views of cultural elites in the West wreaked much havoc.  Paul VI, a good and holy man, drew a line in the sand with Humanae Vitae, but he lacked the stomach and the will to fight it out with those who would have transformed the Catholic Church into what the Anglican Church is now:  a dying institution, adrift from any allegiance to traditional Christianity, and fully in accord with the mores and beliefs of the secular elite of the West.  Many were rubbing their hands with glee after the death of Pope Paul, in confident assurance that a new liberal pope would complete the transformation of the Church into something akin to Unitarianism with fancy dress.  Instead they got John Paul II, a Polish fighter who had stood toe to toe with the atheist rulers of Poland and was not the least frightened or impressed by the forces that sought to neuter Christ’s Church.  The chaos and low morale of the Church could not be completely reversed in one papacy, but John Paul II began the process and made a huge amount of progress.

2.  Presiding at the Funeral of Communism-During World War II, both the Nazis and the Communists slaughtered a huge number of Polish priests, viewing them as deadly enemies.  How very right they were!  The Polish Church, in the midst of one of the worst persecutions sustained by the Catholic Church in the last century, never lost faith that the Church and Poland would both ultimately outlast the totalitarian regimes and emerge triumphant.  John Paul II was the embodiment of this robust confidence that Communism, like Nazism, was merely a brief historical aberration that could and would be defeated.  The rise of Solidarity was completely predictable to him, and his embrace of it made a crackdown by the Polish Communist regime, and its Kremlin puppet masters, impossible.  John Paul II and Ronald Reagan in the Eighties brought about the largely peaceful collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and laid the groundwork for its collapse in the former Soviet Union.  The heirs of Joseph Stalin learned to their sorrow that the type of power wielded by a skillful and determined pope cannot be counted in divisions but rather in human hearts.

3.  Culture of Life-In the teeth of an overwhelming movement among Western elites to jettison the belief that human life is sacred, John Paul II rededicated the Church to that proposition and waged a long uphill struggle throughout his papacy against abortion and euthanasia.  Like Moses, John Paul II did not live to see the victory in this fight, but ultimately we will win, and his brave stand at a crucial moment in history will be one of the reasons why.

4.  Pope of the people-With modern means of transportation, a vigorous Pope can treat the whole world as his diocese by globe-trotting and that is precisely what John Paul II did.  In the Nineteenth Century, modern means of communication, the telegraph, photography and newspapers, were skillfully used by Pius IX to forge a personal contact between the Pope and average Catholics.  Pope John Paul II took this a step farther by bringing the Pope to the average Catholic.  A masterful stroke and superbly executed.

5.  Vocations-Pope John Paul II began the process by which the hemorrhaging of priests was stanched and laid the groundwork for the rebound we are now seeing in vocations to the priesthood in most of the Church outside of Europe.  Much needs to be done still, but without the efforts of John Paul II the situation now would be of truly crisis proportions.

6.  Theology of the Body-One of the crises of our time is the alienation between some men and women caused by rapidly changing relationships between the sexes brought on by modern life.  John Paul II addressed this in his Theology of the Body.  Go here for a good overview.  The exalted view of John Paul Ii of the love between man and woman in marriage of course ties in perfectly with his defense of the sanctity of life.  In many ways love was the central theme of the papacy of John Paul II.

7.  Centesimus Annus-With the collapse of Communism, in 1991 John Paul II released Centesimus annus, an overview of the mistakes of Marxism and the challenges that remained in a world where Capitalism now seemed supreme.  Go here to read it.  The most significant two paragraphs:

  1. Returning now to the initial question: can it perhaps be said that, after the failure of Communism, capitalism is the victorious social system, and that capitalism should be the goal of the countries now making efforts to rebuild their economy and society? Is this the model which ought to be proposed to the countries of the Third World which are searching for the path to true economic and civil progress?

The answer is obviously complex. If by “capitalism” is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a “business economy”, “market economy” or simply “free economy”. But if by “capitalism” is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative.

8.  Liberation Theology Rejected-In the Sixties and the Seventies of the last century, elements within the Church engaged in a strong flirtation with Marxism and the idea that the Kingdom of God could be brought about by class struggle and rebellion.  The idea was completely hare-brained, but it attracted quite a following.  John Paul II explained that the liberation that Christianity brought had nothing in common with the power grab the Marxists were seeking.  Go here for resources regarding the statements of John Paul II on Liberation Theology.

This list only touches some of the main features of the papacy of John Paul II, a papacy that will be discussed endlessly as the centuries pass.  In the far future Jimmy, if historians will recall you at all, it will probably be because you were president at the start of the pontificate of John Paul the Great.

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Paul W Primavera
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 12:19pm

“Carter made his remarks as he introduced a new edition of the Bible with his own study notes, helping readers to follow his understanding of the Scriptures.”

Anybody want to buy a failed President’s Study Bible?

http://www.christianbook.com/niv-lessons-personal-reflections-jimmy-carter/9780310950813/pd/950813

I wrote a nasty letter to Zondervan Publishing about a year or so about this, highlighting Carter’s anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism. I got a nastier letter back, as expected. I would have been disappointed otherwise. My advice: boycott Zondervan. There are plenty of other good Christian publishing houses, both Roman and otherwise, without giving them your business.

Kurt
Kurt
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 12:26pm

How is denying the doctrine of the all-male priesthood anti-Catholic in a way that denying the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is not? We generally don’t call those who do not believe in the Immaculate Conception anti-Catholic.

Paul W Primavera
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 12:33pm

Perhaps Carter is just as “Catholic” as you are, Kurt! 😉

Not.

trackback
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 12:34pm

[…] (In light of Carter's latest tirade against the Catholic Church, I thought TAC readers would like to see this post from March of last year.) Bad enough that James Earl Carter, Jr. is the worst president this country has had not named James … View full post on catholic – Google Blog Search […]

Cynthia
Cynthia
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 3:31pm

Why doesn’t he go away?! He is SO irrelevant. Oops! I guess I just answered my own question.

Jerry
Jerry
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 4:24pm

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 10:29pm

Kurt:

What Carter is doing is trying to pave the way for Catholics to be excluded from civil society. Painting Catholics as bigoted and discriminatory is the way they will go about this. Denying the Immaculate Conception isn’t going to do that. If one expresses belief in the Immaculate Conception in public, you might get some puzzled looks, but no one is going to say you shouldn’t participate in public life. It might not be well understood by the rest of society, but it won’t get you lynched. It might prompt a conversation about what Catholic teaching is on the matter.

On the other hand, if you can misrepresent Catholic teaching and say that Catholics hurt women and discriminate against women and gays, then you get some real leverage. Again, the public won’t understand what Catholic teaching is and they will believe the lie. And once they listen to someone like Carter, they will shut their minds and not listen to a thing you have to say about the matter. In fact, Carter can drum up support for persecution of Catholics on the grounds that we are violating someone’s human rights. It’s sort of like in the days of Nero when they said Catholics were cannibals. It’s a misrepresentation of Catholic teaching designed to shut minds against the Church and lead to persecution. It was back in Nero’s time, and it is the same today. To quote the TV series Galactica, “All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.”

Alphatron Shinyskullus
Monday, June 24, AD 2013 10:30pm

I meant “Battlestar Galactica”, the more recent version from 2004.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Tuesday, June 25, AD 2013 9:54am

Obama says that Catholic schools are a cause of the Irish troubles. Carter piles on with his anti-woman nonsense. Sibelius forces us to provide contraception and abortifacient drugs to employees. Caesar, Henry, Elizabeth, Cromwell, Napoleon, Marx, Bismarck, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin are all gone. The Church remains.

A.A. Cunningham
A.A. Cunningham
Tuesday, June 25, AD 2013 12:59pm

The peanut farmer kissed Brezhnev on the cheek.

John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher kicked Gorbachev in the a**.

trackback
Tuesday, June 25, AD 2013 8:28pm

[…] Matt Archbold, CMR Using Bad Faith Arguments to Support Immigration Reform – Paul Zummo Jimmy Carte, Anti-Catholic Bigot, Attacks JP2 – Donald R. McClarey JD, TAC The Bishop as the Chief Liturgical Dancer of his Diocese – […]

John Nolan
John Nolan
Wednesday, June 26, AD 2013 6:03am

Carter’s osculation of the Soviet leader led The Economist to remark that he was “a-wastin’ Christian kisses on a heathen idol’s foot” (cf Kipling). The only political legacy of Jimmy Carter was that he started the fashion among politicians of holding hands with their wives in public (dashed bad form, don’t you know). However, unlike the present incumbent of the White House, he didn’t use Rosalind as a cheer-leader and warm-up act.

Seriously, Karol Wojtyla was the only undeniable great man of the second half of the 20th century. And the western democracies had the sense to replace Carter and Callaghan with Reagan and Thatcher.

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