Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter claimed Thursday the U.S. has seen a “resurgence of racism,” and called on Christian leaders to change that environment.
Speaking at a summit hosted by Atlanta-based New Baptist Covenant, Carter, a lifelong Baptist, said he has experienced “some degree of embarrassment” watching the 2016 presidential election unfold over the past year.
“I think there will be a positive reaction after this election,” Carter said, according to the Associated Press. “I pray it will come out a certain way, but I think there will be a lot of lessons learned. And I think the average person in America now will be looking at how to do better things, how to have a superb American policy on peace and human rights and other aspects of life. I think we’ll raise our standards as a public and I believe our next president will accommodate that inclination.”
The 91-year-old cancer survivor charged the city’s churches with creating partnerships between black and white churches as a means of addressing community issues together. He called the potential relationships “a very powerful potential weapon to set an example not just among Baptists, not just among churches, but in communities.”
Despite saying he did not want to get into politics during the speech, Carter admitted all 22 members of his family will vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“We’ll all vote the same way,” Carter said. “They have inherited some genes or something that causes them to look with favor on the New Baptist Covenant and on one of the parties.”
