How a DC church shaped Jimmy Carter's presidency

President Jimmy Carter's DC church to release Sunday School recordings

When President Carter got into office, he wanted to find a church in D.C. where his family could worship. About five blocks north of the White House on 16th Street, he found First Baptist Church of The City of Washington D.C. FOX 5's David Kaplan has the story.

WASHINGTON - President Jimmy Carter’s faith was always central to him.

He was from a small town in Rural Georgia with a Southern Baptist upbringing.

Those roots never left him, and he never left the church.

When President Carter got into office, he wanted to find a church in D.C. where his family could worship.

About five blocks north of the White House on 16th Street, he found First Baptist Church of The City of Washington D.C.

"His humility and humanity are the things people know him for best and so, being just another brother in Christ, when he walked through these doors, I think reinforced the deepest truth about himself," said Pastor Julie Pennington-Russell, "He was president, he was the most powerful person in the world. And yet at his core, he knew who he was. And this church helped remind him of that."

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Church Historian Christi Harlan wrote two books on President Carter’s relationship with the church.

One of her books is called "Normal Lives".

That title is an homage to what President Carter sought from the church, a chance to focus on faith amidst his Presidency.

Harlan says President Carter attended the church about 75 times and was a Sunday School Teacher.

The family sat in the third pew from the front on the right side. Pennington-Russell says that spot gave Carter an unobstructed view of a stained-glass portrait of George Washington Carver in the sanctuary.

Carver famously engineered multiple uses for the peanut, which Carter, a peanut farmer, loved. The portrait was there before the Carters joined the church.

President Carter also taught Sunday School 17 times during his presidency. The church recorded and has preserved 14 hours of those lessons.

"He rarely mentioned the cares of his office. Again, with everything that was going on, inflation, gas prices, the hostages, his faith, it seems called on him to focus on teaching the Bible," Harlan told FOX 5.

The church shared the recordings with FOX 5.

One of the few times Carter did talk about work was shortly after the Camp David Accords, where he helped broker peace between Israel and Egypt. He taught a class shortly after returning from Camp David and got a standing ovation.

"Well, it’s always nice to come back from a two-week vacation at Camp David. I think some of the most unpleasant moments of my life occurred in the last two weeks. And of course, also some of the most pleasant," Carter said.

Carter then went on to say how devout Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Bagen were and remarked how all three of the men believed in the same God.

"The breadth, the wideness of his faith, his understanding that God is the God of all people. For a man who grew up Southern Baptist and came from a small town in Georgia. A small Baptist church in Georgia to proclaim such a wide message, for me, means everything. I think it says everything about who he was," Pennington-Russell said.

President Carter wrote letters to the church after his presidency and the church has kept those artifacts.

"One of the finest things that ever happened to us, personally, was the joining of this class and the friendship with Fred Gregg (another Sunday School Teacher at the church) and all of you who have accepted us," Carter said in one of his last Sunday School lessons. "Not as a public official in some ivory tower, but as a human being, as a fellow, Christian and as a friend."

The church is planning a service to honor President Carter on Sunday night. They also plan to open the sanctuary next week and play recordings of his Sunday School lessons aloud.

Jimmy Carter Washington, D.C.