In 2000, after decades as America’s most famous Sunday school teacher, Jimmy Carter decided to cut the symbolic ties binding him to the Southern Baptist Convention.
The former president remained active at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, and didn’t renounce his faith. His letter to 75,000 American Baptists explained that he rejected a revision of the SBC’s Baptist Faith and Message document, from months earlier, to oppose the ordination of women.
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