He spoke about Christ's insistence that people love their enemies.
"It is one of the most difficult things for human beings to do," Carter said. "But Jesus said this because he meant it."
"It really grieved me to see my own depository of religious faith . . . being ripped apart," Carter said. "It was very deeply troubling. And I have felt, maybe unjustifiably, a personal obligation to try to do something about it."
Carter remembers that culture as being tolerant of divergent viewpoints. But when he left the White House in 1981, a conservative faction within the convention had begun to take over, and liberals like him felt spurned
.His latest attempt at a rapprochement resulted in an ambitious meeting of Baptists of all stripes this week in Atlanta.
But the Southern Baptist Convention leadership refused to attend. In May, President Frank Page, whom Carter personally invited, denounced the meeting's "smoke-screen left-wing liberal agenda."
clipped from: www.latimes.com 