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February 2025

Pastor’s Perspective – February 2025

 

President Jimmy Carter died the same month as my own maternal grandfather, Joseph Brunacini.  Carter was 100, my grandfather 104.  Both served in the military, Carter in the Navy, my grandfather in the Army, fighting with the Big Red One in the European theater.  Both men were Baptists (my grandfather converted from Roman Catholicism in the Eighties) and both proudly and passionately served Jesus.

While neither of their deaths were unexpected, their passing felt like a chapter in my life had closed. We are losing what has been called, “the greatest generation.”  The generation who won World War 2 and lived in its aftermath as the keepers of moral clarity.  They came to Christ in the forties and fifties, served in government and locally as members of a vibrant community of faith and business.  They populated and supported our congregations and were perhaps the last generation to coexist in a bipartisan fashion with men and women of differing political viewpoints in the local Church.

Their generation did things differently.  When my brother, David Bellavia, came home from the Iraq war and began to write his memoir, “House to House,” my grandfather marveled that anyone would want to hear the story. His generation kept their stories to themselves.  When my brother’s valor was recognized and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor, my grandfather’s bronze star was upgraded to Silver, and many in the family heard his story for the first time.

They believed that talk was cheap, and actions mattered.  It was what grounded them.  In an age where it is easy to use social media to establish credibility and express one’s social conscience, we have forgotten that helping the homeless used to mean feeding and sheltering them in your own home.

President Carter was celebrated for doing what government programs often failed to do.  He built houses for people.  Not as a line item in a budget, but with a hammer and nails.  Government talk is never cheap, but Jimmy Carter (and his generation) showed us that actions save money and make a difference.   This generation survived the depression, bought cars without credit, fixed their own appliances, and while they worked often for less than $5 per hour, they found a way to buy their homes and leave an inheritance for their grandchildren.

They also managed to live godly lives of faith.  President Carter taught Sunday School for decades after he left the Oval Office. Like those who served in the Presidency before him, at his best, Carter was known for returning from public life to life in the community, where he lived faithfully.

While their generation was not without flaws, and their lives were not without sin and failure, this generation has provided lessons that we should learn.  They are simple truths that can help each of us to establish lives of joy and godliness.

Live within your means.  Jimmy and Rosaline Carter lived in one house from 1961 until they died.  They never traded up or moved away from their homestead.  They built a home, settled there, and were satisfied.

Live your faith. In many ways Jimmy Carter was a terrible President, his ideas often failed and his attempts to make other people do what he said resulted in an ignominious exit from the White House after one term.  His life, however, was a stellar example of faithful living.  He provided more for the poor in his personal life than he did in his professional life, showing us that the 96 years of life outside of the White House were far more consequential.

Follow Jesus first.  We do not follow Jesus for likes or because it is fashionable, it is our life. While preachers and teachers get the attention in our media dominated age, it is Christians living their faith that actually move the needle in our world.  If more of us would simply follow Jesus, personally give to the poor, and care for our neighbors, we would not need to argue about public strategies or government programs.  Share your surplus.  Do your work.  Live as a Christ follower.

 

Pastor Dan