Former President Carter blasts Catholic teaching on women’s ordination
March 26, 2014
In an interview with National Public Radio, former President Jimmy Carter said that Catholic teaching on women’s ordination has led to the abuse of women throughout the world.
“The fact that the Catholic Church, for instance, prohibits women from serving as priests or even deacons gives a kind of a permission to male people all over the world, that well, if God thinks that women are inferior, I’ll treat them as inferiors,” said Carter. “If she’s my wife, I can abuse her with impunity, or if I'm an employer, I can pay my female employees less salary.”
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Posted by: bruno -
Mar. 30, 2014 4:33 PM ET USA
Carter was called out long ago by Human Life International for promoting birth-control-for-aid and abortion on demand in the developing world. So much for protecting women from abuse!
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Posted by: -
Mar. 27, 2014 11:36 AM ET USA
Carter is a fine example of how Catholic haters think. He knows more about peanut farming that most of us do, cause he's done it, lived it, and he would reject outright any advice that came from a yankee steelworker, and rightly so. But Carter refuses to let that simple example enlighten him about the errors he has imagined The Catholic Church has committed. I pray that he has a Catholic friend who can show him his sins against the Holy Spirit before it's too late.
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Posted by: unum -
Mar. 27, 2014 9:56 AM ET USA
A different take - Jimmah personifies the current liberal trend away from America's traditional tolerance and toward politicization of the entire culture. Liberals know what is best - for everyone - whether the subject is health care, business, or even religion. If liberals believe in the equality of women then all must believe in their equality. If liberals believe in abortion, then it must be included in all health insurance. Carter's attitude typifies that of the left.
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Posted by: -
Mar. 26, 2014 11:35 PM ET USA
He's becoming more absurd as time goes by. Perhaps it's time for some psychiatric evaluation.
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Posted by: TheJournalist64 -
Mar. 26, 2014 10:40 PM ET USA
Has he said anything in the last forty years worth remembering?
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Posted by: Frodo1945 -
Mar. 26, 2014 7:21 PM ET USA
Jimmy Carter is a worse theologian than he was a President. And there is not much room there for being worse. I could do without a report on his views.
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Posted by: jeremiahjj -
Mar. 26, 2014 7:15 PM ET USA
Mr. Carter's statement indicates he knows little or nothing about Catholic theology. Perhaps his own Protestant misconceptions about Catholicism have colored his views. The gentleman really should keep quiet about a subject he knows nothing about.
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Posted by: filioque -
Mar. 26, 2014 6:50 PM ET USA
What a hoot! This is the man who quit a promising career in the Navy to go back to Plains, Ga., to run the family peanut farm without telling his wife! And she had been ecstatic to get out of Plains.
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Posted by: normnuke -
Mar. 26, 2014 11:50 AM ET USA
I like to start my day with a laugh. This fills the bill. What a moron.
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Posted by: garedawg -
Mar. 26, 2014 10:24 AM ET USA
Wow, Jimmy Carter's words make me even more happy and proud to be Catholic!
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Posted by: feedback -
Mar. 26, 2014 9:53 AM ET USA
Jimmy Carter created God in his own image and likeness. He should not neglect to address first the freemasons' exclusion of women. They do not provide solid theological basis for their exclusion like the Catholic Church does.
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
Mar. 26, 2014 7:29 AM ET USA
Carter is a Baptist. Perhaps some Catholic political figure should lecture him on the many failings of his own theology. Our man could start by criticizing that sect's peculiar, some might say paranoid, take on alcohol and its frequently found smug presumption that one can know for certain he is saved. Carter should stick to the sole occupation where he has demonstrated some expertise, building houses.
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Mar. 26, 2014 6:33 AM ET USA
Where have we heard this kind of reasoning before? Oh yeah, the U.S. Congress. American universities. Board rooms. The ignorance is appalling. Catholic reasoning is clear: the Church has absolutely no authority to override what Christ has established. Unimpeded by the traditions of men, Christ incarnated as a man. Free to choose His apostles by name, He chose only men. Those who serve the sacrifice of the altar do so in His person. Not difficult to understand if done with the mind of the Church.
