Appearing Tuesday on HuffPost Live,
former president Jimmy Carter said that he believes that Jesus would
approve of gay marriage.
The one-term Democratic president is
currently pitching his latest book A
Full Life: Reflections at Ninety.
Carter, an ordained Baptist minister,
said that he had never run across any really serious conflicts
between his political obligations and his religious faith.
“How about gay marriage?” host Marc
Lamont Hill asked.
“That's no problem with me,” he
answered. “I wouldn't be in favor of the government being able
to force a local church congregation to perform gay marriages if they
didn't want to.”
Carter added that he's struggled with
abortion, saying that he didn't believe that Jesus would approve.
“Would Jesus approve gay marriage?”
“I believe he would. I believe Jesus
would. I don't have any verse in scripture …,” he replied.
“No, no, no. Just intuitively,
yeah,” Hill said.
“I believe that Jesus would approve
of gay marriage, but I'm not – that's just my own personal belief.
I think Jesus would approve of any love affair that was honest and
sincere, and was not damaging to anyone else. And I don't think that
gay marriage damages anyone else,” Carter added.