Jimmy Carter teaches Bible Study classes at his hometown church. His lectures have been turned into a series of CDs called Sunday Morning on the Plains. Given the topic, it is not surprising that he frequently discusses Judaism. What is surprising is what our President has to say about Jews and Judaism.
Here are some direct quotes...
“Father, we are grateful this morning to have open to us for this month the words of Isaiah, an ancient prophet who may not have understood all he said, but we’re also grateful that we [Christians] now know the full meaning of the ancient words that you have Isaiah say for you” 3:1:17
“If you were an Israelite listening to Isaiah’s words, that they may not be entirely comprehensible . . . but we [Christians] have an insight into the character of God. We have an insight into the truth about God that was not existent then and that insight came with the birth of Jesus Christ.” 3:3:14
“and we’ll continue this morning with this criticism of uh, Jesus being inevitable from the religious leaders of the time and the conflict that we’re going to describe this morning is the first stage of a--the very first instance--of an altercation or development of animosity or condemnation against Christ by the religious leaders of that day, primarily the Pharisees, and others, because Christ’s new description of God was so absolutely and diametrically contrary to the approach to religion espoused by the religious leaders of that time.
They had degenerated in their description of a covenant between God and the Chosen People into a dry analysis of individual scripture verses, and they had developed more than 600 little detailed orders and commands and rules and regulations that a good person should have to follow in order to be reconciled with or compatible with God Almighty, and that was the totality of their faith.
“Prior to Christ coming, the role of women in the society of that day was similar to what the Taliban imposed on women in Afghanistan”
Opinion of two rabbis
When The Jewish Press showed these and other passages to Rabbi Garry Greenebaum, U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, he said, “This material just shows a vast – I don’t know what other word to use – but a tremendous amount of ignorance and misapprehension of Jewish ideas and Jewish values and Jewish morality over the centuries.
“There are so many statements in the Torah that he should about which instruct us to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ and to treat the stranger with respect ‘because you were a stranger in a strange land’…. The Bible teaches that every person is created in the divine image of God. I mean these are pretty basic Jewish principles and values…. And responsibility to provide for parents is part of the fifth commandment, ‘Honor thy father and mother,’…. so what’s he talking about?”...
Rabbi Greenebaum of the AJC declined to go that far. “I can’t impute negative intent to him. I don’t know that.” Rather, Rabbi Greenebaum sees Carter’s statements (which, he said, “imply a lot of anti-Jewish sentiment”) as the unfortunate residue of “prejudices and misunderstandings that have passed from one generation to the next to the next to the next.”
Noting that he is involved in programs that offer Christian clergy classes in Jewish history and Jewish law, Rabbi Greenebaum said, “My point isn’t to chastise him but to say come, let’s sit down and study together … do a little chavruta.”
In the interest of copyright protection, I will not site further examples. There are many many more, including numerous references to Jews killing Jesus. You can read them or listen to them yourself here.
Many people pointed out concerns about errors and bias in his book, Peace Not Apartheid. More people scoffed at that notion; after all, President Carter is a well loved, well respected Democrat. We need to reevaluate the merit and tone of Peace Not Apartheid given his sermons.