Illustrations
from Leonard Sweet
from Leonard Sweet
- In his book An Hour Before Daylight, former President Jimmy Carter reflects on his childhood in rural Georgia, his relationship with his parents, and his infamous brother Billy. He writes, "Mama always said that Billy was the smartest of her children, and none of us argued with her. . . . When the international news media moved into our town during the 1976 presidential campaign, Billy became the center of attention. He drank more, talked more, and saw his deliberately outrageous statements quoted as serious comments. . . He was always good for a delightful quote. When one of the reporters remarked that Billy was a little strange, he replied, "Look, my Mama was a seventy-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in India, one of my sisters goes all over the world as a holy-roller preacher, my oldest sister spends half her time on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and my brother thinks he's going to be President of the United States. Which one of our family do you think is normal?" (Quoted on p. 14 in Leonard Sweet's book Jesus Drives Me Crazy!, p. 266 in Carter's.}
- "If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business. The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified. The world says, Drive carefully -- the life you save may be your own -- and Jesus says, Whoever would say his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The world says Law and Order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get, and Jesus says, Give. In terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion. (Quoted on p. 30 in Sweet's book, from Frederick Buechner's, The Life of Jesus, p. 136}