Jimmy Carter: A progressive Baptist in the Bible belt

The young Jimmy Carter was a political nobody the first time he ran for governor of Georgia.

That long-shot 1966 effort failed, leaving him wrestling with doubts about his future and his faith. But Carter rallied, including years of work with Billy Graham's 1973 Atlanta Crusade. He also joined a small circle of Southern Baptists who traveled to the central Pennsylvania hills to be a witness to the …