Former President Jimmy Carter’s announcement Sunday that his cancer was gone caught nearly everyone by surprise. But not the place he chose to make it.
It was while teaching Sunday School at his beloved Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains that Carter said his most recent brain scan had found no signs of the original melanoma spots, or any new ones. And while much of the credit must go to his doctors and their groundbreaking treatment regimen, Carter suggested, he’d also gotten some additional help:
“So a lot of people prayed for me, and I appreciate that, ” he said as the capacity crowd of about 350 people reportedly burst into applause.
The Rev. Raphael Warnock, who pastors the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, said he has no doubt that prayer “clearly played a role” in Carter’s recovery.
“But I think that, given the person of faith that Jimmy Carter is, his faith would be strong even if his body isn’t. He recognizes that he, ultimately, is mortal,” said Warnock, who said Carter’s grandson Jason Carter was at his church service Sunday morning.
“I’m careful because I stand at the bedsides of people all the time whose cancer does not go into remission,” he said. “Sometimes prayer heals the body. But sometimes it just lifts up the spirit.”
Faith has played a central role in Carter’s life. He has continued to teach Sunday school through the years and his cancer diagnosis this summer has done little to change that weekly ritual. So, among believers, there was some speculation Sunday that divine intervention may have had a hand in his recovery.
And sometimes the power of prayer asserts itself in the most unexpected places. Like in the name of the song the Maranatha choir had already been scheduled to sing during the worship service that followed on the heels of Carter’s Sunday School class and his big announcement:
“It was ‘Bow the Knee,’” said Jan Williams, a member of the choir and a close friend of Carter’s. “As in, when you get into a tough situation and you don’t know what God’s plan is, you should bow the knee.
“I thought to myself (while singing), ‘This is perfect,’” Williams concluded. “‘Every one of us should bow our knee today and thank God for blessing Jimmy Carter.’”
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