Christi Harlan on LinkedIn: New book features transcripts of Jimmy Carter’s Sunday school lessons… (2024)

As a teenager in Houston, I was a regular reader of the Baptist Standard. Today, I'm thrilled to have a byline on a remarkable story about Jimmy Carter and the church he called home as President. You can read the full lesson in "Mr. President, The Class Is Yours," available from Amazon and other booksellers.#Baptist Standard

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I was trained as a newspaper reporter to keep myself out of the story. I did that for 20 years before I went into government public affairs, where other people got credit for the quotes and speeches I wrote. After a career of working behind the scenes, I’m having trouble with what feels like full-frontal engagement with readers. That said, I feel so strongly about the historic importance of Jimmy Carter’s time at the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., that I will engage with readers and anyone who will listen. I welcome opportunities to speak to your book club, church, library or retirement home—even your family reunion, provided the potato salad doesn’t sit outside in the heat for too long.

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Forty-five years ago, on April 29, 1979, a Baptist pastor from Kyiv was in the balcony of the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., listening to President Jimmy Carter teach a Sunday school lesson.Pastor Georgi Vins had arrived in the U.S. less than 48 hours earlier, one of five Soviet detainees freed in exchange for Carter's release of two Soviet spies. Carter taught that Sunday from 1 Kings 21 about King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the unlawful seizure of land from Naboth. The lesson, long scheduled in the Sunday school curriculum, was called "A Cry for Justice."“I've just been told that four days ago, Pastor Vins was in a cattle car being transported within Siberia as an exile in his own country,” Carter said. “There could hardly be a better lesson than what I've already said.”As was his custom when he taught, President Carter encouraged the class to see a practical application of the Bible story:“I would particularly want you this morning not to think about the time of Ahab, not to think about even the Soviet Union, but to think about the United States, the Washington, D.C., community, and preferably, my life and your life, and our actions in the eyes of God.”The full text of that lesson and 13 others taught by President Carter at First Baptist D.C. are transcribed for the first time in "Mr. President, The Class Is Yours," available now in paperback or ebook on Amazon. https://lnkd.in/e7WFzKBM

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One year ago, a former Sunday School teacher at my church entered hospice care. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about Jimmy Carter and the lives he touched at the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington, D.C., between 1977 and 1981. The material is rich enough that I’m writing two books about a great Sunday School teacher who happened to be U.S. President. The first book will contain transcripts of 14 Sunday School lessons taught by Carter while he was in the White House. Watch for“Mr. President, The Class is Yours” this spring. The second book, “Normal Lives,” will tell the story of a president and his church.Stay tuned.(Photo courtesy Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum) The Carter Center

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