It would seem that ex-US President Jimmy Carter has finally realised that clinging onto ancient scripture and religious dogma based upon it (i.e. having a fundamentalist attitude) leads to moral stagnation and inevitable injustice. After a lifelong membership of the Southern Baptist Convention he has finally severed all ties with that particular Christian sect.
The reason he gives is that he can no longer tolerate the inequality desired and sometimes imposed on Women by that organisation based on cherry-picked verses of the Bible that are clearly man-made and no longer relevant to modern gender ethics; they are, he concludes, unfair. After 60 years in any organisation I think it's a very brave and honest thing to do; to admit that you were wrong and to publicly reject such a lengthy and emotional investment for an ethical principal is an inspirational act, one that many would benefit from considering in their own lives, religious or otherwise.
Hopefully President Carter can make that one extra little incremental leap of logic and not just reject the particular sect he was involved with for 60 years, but the whole notion that a faith based (i.e. against the evidence) approach has any useful place in determining our ethics or the kinds of societies we wish to live in.
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