ATLANTA - Jimmy Carter may never have been president if he didn'tgo square dancing.
The Georgia Democrat credits a rural square dance club he joinedin 1953 with helping him win a state Senate seat by a scant 66votes.
"If I hadn't received support from our square-dancing friends, Iwould have lost and never become a state senator," he wrote in hislatest book, "Through the Years with Jimmy Carter." "And if that hadoccurred, I never would have run for office again."
Carter has penned 26 different books, including childhoodmemoirs, treatises on the Middle East and accounts of hispresidency. But none are like his latest, which offers 366devotionals, each with a biblical passage, a personal story and anoriginal prayer.
The one-page items are sprinkled with lessons Carter gleaned frommore than 30 years of teaching Sunday school classes and anecdotesfrom his country upbringing to his ascent to the White House andbeyond.
"The totality of my teaching presents a view of a lay person. I'mnot a theologian," he said in an interview. "I'm extracting realmessages from the Bible or from Christian faith that apply to dailyexistence and that's applicable whether you're a farmer, ajournalist, a lawyer, a teacher or a political office holder."
In the book, Carter is open about struggles over his own faith.He writes that he felt "despondent and alienated from God" afterlosing his first bid for Georgia's governor in 1966, and said hiswife Rosalynn went through a rough patch when he lost to RonaldReagan in 1980. But he said he retrenched during those dark timesand worked to remind himself of the role religion has played in hislife.
"If there is no basis for our faith ... then how do we accountfor the presence of Jesus Christ in hundreds of millions of livesacross the globe?" he wrote in the book. "How could Jesus still bealive to me? How could so many hearts be touched and mindsstimulated by Jesus to seek ultimate truths about life and the worldaround us?"
His book casts some political debates with religious overtones.He condemns the Patriot Act and waterboarding, writing thatChristians "cannot keep silent just because the injustice doesn'taffect our own families or friends." And he said it would be"foolish" for the devout to deny global warming.
"While we may disagree on the causes or rate of global warming,shouldn't we all agree that we have a responsibility to take care ofthe Earth?"
Carter is also candid about some of his shortcomings, such as hislack of patience, his penchant for jealousy and his fights with hiswife over trivial issues. One year, when he forgot her birthday, hehastily scrawled out a note to give to her, and it turned out to beone of her favorite gifts. It read: "I promise that I will nevermake another unfavorable comment about tardiness."
Spread throughout the book are history lessons, with insightsover the ancient tensions between Jews and Christians, the roles ofpoliticians and prophets in Biblical times, and the impact ofmartyrs and apostles on Christianity's spread across the globe. Hetells those stories with a healthy dose of jokes he's heard from thepulpit and the White House.
In one passage, he said his brother Billy was on his death bedwhen he told a friend he had carried out a long affair with thefriend's wife.
"His friend's face dropped. The man gulped a couple of times -and then Billy laughed and said, `No, I'm just joking.' That wasBilly.'"
In another passage, Carter mentions a USA Today poll questionthat probes readers on what they would ask if they came face-to-face with God. Carter didn't say what his answer would be in thebook, but in an interview he said he would ask about Christ's rolein the creation of the universe. He said he would not, however,waste a question asking about life after death.
"I'm supposed to have complete faith in life after death as aChristian who has, I would guess, as strong faith in Christ aspossible," he said, adding: "I'd rather be surprised."
Carter said he hopes the book will help send the message that"God calls us to live out our faith." He urges readers to keep theirreligion in mind, reach out to new people and enjoy an expansivelife. After all, he writes, he never would have guessed that squaredancing would have helped him win an election.
"Rosalynn and I enjoyed the square dancing - but we've probablyenjoyed a lot more what's happened since," he wrote. "You just neverknow."
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