In Redeemer, acclaimed religious historian Randall Balmer reveals how the rise and fall of Jimmy Carter?s political fortunes mirrored the transformation of American religious politics. From his beginnings as a humble peanut farmer to the galvanizing politician who rode a reenergized religious movement into the White House, Carter?s life and career mark him as the last great figure in America?s long and venerable history of progressive evangelicalism. Although he stumbled early in his career?courting segregationists during his second campaign for Georgia governor?Carter?s run for president marked a return to the progressive principles of his faith and helped reenergize the evangelical movement. Responding to his message of racial justice, women?s rights, and concern for the plight of the poor, evangelicals across the country helped propel Carter to office. Yet four years later, those very same voters abandoned him for Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party. Carter?s defeat signaled the eclipse of progressive evangelicalism and the rise of the Religious Right, which popularized a dramatically different understanding of the faith, one rooted in nationalism, individualism, and free-market capitalism.
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