Book Review
“Of making many books there is no end. . . “ Ecclesiastes 12:12 NRSV
A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power
by Jimmy Carter (New York: Simon & Shuster, 2014)
Reviewed by Darold Morgan
Jimmy Carter, the nation’s 39th president and one of Baptists’ most articulate spokespersons, has done it again. He has written another book of exceptional value about some subjects deserving our attention and action. The reader is made to be distinctly uncomfortable by the verve, vitality, and brutal honesty of Mr. Carter. He takes us to the heart of one of the most important ethical dilemmas in the world—the mistreatment of women and girls.
That mistreatment, Mr. Carter demonstrates, is bred in and results from prejudice, discrimination, war, violence, distorted interpretations of religious texts, physical and mental abuse, poverty, and disease. Every ill confronting the world disproportionately hurts women and girls.
President Carter provides a fascinating, heart-breaking sequence of chapters which demonstrate beyond debate how serious and widespread the unethical treatment of women is. Sadly, many will disagree with some of his positions. But when one completes reading the book, the inescapable truth is that Mr. Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, have made significant contributions to alleviating this evil as they have toured the globe and left in their wake remarkable and deep accomplishments. Through the Carter Center in Atlanta, they can point to their efforts and contributions with real people.
Carter adroitly weaves vignettes from his life and experiences which demonstrate his values-based understanding of women’s mistreatment. He tells stories from his childhood, his time at the Naval Academy and on the peanut farm as well as in local, state and national political arenas. Those values are based in his basic biblical and Baptist roots. But he was also deeply supportive of the United Nations’ “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” which was ratified in 1948. That declaration advocates in part, “The equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family (i.e. the equal rights of men and women…without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion.”)
Mr. Carter shows his strong biblical knowledge about Jesus, referring to him as “…the great liberator of women in a society where they had been considered throughout biblical history as inferior.” (p. 22) Again, Carter reflects wisely and knowingly on Islam’s Koran regarding the sensitive subject. He connects both Christianity and Islam to the long list of problems facing women and girls today: world-wide violence and abuse, sexual assault and rape, genocide, abortion, slavery and prostitution, spousal abuse, child marriage and dowry deaths, maternal health related to child birth.
Carter focuses attention on the distressing use of several verses in the Bible which are used to justify some of these indefensible abuses. Catholic, evangelical fundamentalists, Islamic militants and Hindu extremists all come to Carter’s attention in his telling of how their interpretations of holy texts lead to behaviors which are exactly opposite to the declaration of the United Nations. This is not pleasant reading, but Carter gives us essential perspective on the immensities and complexities of these problems in cultural and religious contexts.
Two chapters are alone worth the price of the book. One is Chapter Nine, “Learning from Human Rights Heroes.” What an amazing litany of lessons the Carters have gleaned from their firsthand encounters with major world figures who have crossed their paths during and after their White House years.
Second, the final chapter, “The Road to Progress,” gives us the promise of encouragement. All across the globe there are positive developments regarding the rights of women and men. The progress is slow, but it is in the air. The gap between the sexes is seen nowhere more distinctly than in wage disparities, says Carter.
But even with tragedies reported daily, Carter sees light at the end of the tunnel of darkness and evil, coming slowly and inexorably. Simply stated, this is a book that is essential reading for concerned Christians, and for Islamists and secularists and all others, young and old, male and female.
