Jimmy Carter, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100, spent his life intertwined with America’s and the world’s enduring legacy of slavery.

Jimmy Carter was an evangelical. A liberal evangelical. A liberal evangelical in the age before the Christian Right supported a conservative revolution that swept Republican Ronald Reagan into power.

Lesser known, and particularly relevant for American politics today, is our 39th president’s commitment to the Baptist value of religious liberty. The United States’ most religious president in recent memory was also the most committed to the separation of church and state.

Mr. Carter witnessed a shift from what had been a solidly Democratic South to one that Republicans, supported by white voters and particularly evangelicals, came to dominate.

Jimmy Carter's presidency -- and his promise to never tell a lie -- predated PolitiFact's 2007 birth. Nevertheless, we fact-checked several statements the 39th president made after leaving the White House.

Carter was not only the most decent and respectable president of my lifetime. He was the most reverent, realistic, compassionate and just.

Jimmy Carter officially announces his candidacy ... He once described feeling shocked when a “high official” in the Southern Baptist Convention told him in the Oval Office that “we are ...

Carter talked openly and often in the 1976 campaign about his evangelical “born again” faith, ignoring those who advised him to downplay his beliefs.

Carter declared that he was no longer a Southern Baptist and threw his support behind a competing movement of moderates.

Former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn visited a Habitat For Humanity community in Fairfield, Ala., Friday October 8, 2010 to help put the finishing touches on the home of Ted and Wanda Harville. The Carters worked on that house, visited others, and spoke to reporters. (File/AL.com/Joe Songer-The Birmingham News) bn bn

As the world pays homage to former President Jimmy Carter, some people overlook a primary source of inspiration for his politics: his distinctive brand of White evangelical Christianity, which remains hidden from most Americans.