"President Jimmy Carter" Kessler "02"

 You never really Appreciate the Man unless you shake his Hand.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it's so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.
Jimmy Carter

I recently read an article about former President Jimmy Carter breaking away from the Southern Baptist Convention because of their treatment of women and it oddly reminded me of my own encounter with the former president almost thirty years ago.

In the fall of 1980 I was a college student in Pittsburgh. Every morning I would walk the downtown streets of the “burgh” on my way to class. On this particular fall morning some of the streets in downtown were blocked off because President Jimmy Carter was in town. He had just come in from Cleveland where he had debated Ronald Reagan the evening before. There was quite the excitement in the air on this brisk autumn, grey morning as the presidential motorcade made its way through town to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

As I made my way to the cathedral to catch a glimpse of the president, I have to admit I was beginning to get pretty excited about seeing the peanut farmer from Georgia with the colossal smile and had a crazy brother named Billy who had a beer named after him. The president and I did share a few things in common. I knew he was a Christian and like any other normal homo sepien male species, he admitted to having unchristian thoughts towards other women in an interview he gave to Playboy magazine a few years earlier. Did I mention I was a college student at the time? :)

When I got to the Cathedral there was quite the crowd gathered already. I had a secret weapon though, a huge portfolio I carried with all my art materials to class in each day. It was the perfect device for cutting my way through the crowd. That and a lot of “excuse me’s.” Sufficed to say, I made my way to the front of the crowd and found myself standing along the police tape that was supposedly there to protect the president from us common folk.

From this vantage point, I knew I would get to see him. As he came out of the church the Secret service was ready to usher him into the presidential limo but Mr. Carter decided he would shake a few hands first. I made sure my hand would block his way as he made his way along the line. When he came by he shook my hand and flashed that huge grin of his and said, Hi. It wasn’t just any “Hi,” it was that southern accent, you’re my best friend in the whole wide world “Hi.”

Wow, I just shook the most powerful man in the worlds hand but all I could think of was, “man, was he wearing a ton of make-up or what.’ I guess it was for the camera’s but before I could respond, the men in black wearing the dark sunglasses on an overcast day, ushered him along the line. This “handshake” brings me to the point I’m trying to make.

Commenting on blogs and forums can be a tricky and delicate adventure. Sometimes what is written comes across in a completely different manner than what or how it was originally intended. Unless you shook the man’s hand who wrote it, you can really never know what sort of man he is behind your computer screen. Unless you know my sense of humor and personality , you might at times think I’m sarcastic or even clueless. Wait a minute, I am sarcastic but that's not the point. Again, my point is if you never met me you might take what I say the wrong way.

I have had the privilege to have met most of the folks we read about on these preterist sites. I shook hands with Don Preston, Sam Frost, Jack Scott, Virgil Vaduva, Tim Martin, Jeffery Vaughn, Jason Bradfield, Ed Burly, Tom G, Ward Fenley,Tami and Keith J, Ed Stevens, Terry Hall, and many other‘s. And because of that, I understand a little better about how they write or how they think because their personalities are a reflection of that writing style. This is important to remember the next time you feel yourself thinking you’re dealing with a heretical jerk of Biblical proportions on the other end of the computer keyboards.

President Carter might not have been the smartest or greatest president in our country’s history but he was one of the only presidents that held onto his faith when it counted the most. And because I once shook his hand for only a brief moment in time, he’ll always be one of my favorite peanut farmers, favorite American statesmen, and most of all, brother in Christ Jesus.

James Robert Kessler

Because of Him Art Ministry 2009