Former Vice President Mike Pence, in an interview with Russell Moore—the former chief of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission—praised Jimmy Carter for being a "born-again Christian" and even admitted to voting for him during his early years as a Democrat youth coordinator.
Pence fondly recalled thanking Carter in person years later, despite acknowledging their “differences” on issues over time. Yet, in a moment of bizarre reverence, Pence described Carter's faith as a "blessing to the nation."
Strange bedfellows? Jimmy Carter—whose political career was marked by policies and positions that align more with the endless human depravity laid bare in Romans 1:24-32 than anything resembling a mind that has been transformed and renewed in Christ—has somehow become a figure worthy of evangelical admiration.
And, as usual, Russell Moore, ever the eager enabler, provides the perfect platform for such profane nostalgia.
How does this happen and why is it so common in Evangelicalism? How do men like Pence and Moore—who claim to stand for Christ—find themselves applauding a political figure whose party's platform celebrates and institutionalizes the very sins that God has handed people over to in judgment?
Look no further than Romans 1. The Democratic Party has become the embodiment of the downward spiral described by Paul, beginning with the suppression of truth and escalating into idolatry, sexual immorality, and every imaginable form of wickedness.
