Admirers make pilgrimage for Sunday teachings of Jimmy Carter

PLAINS, Ga. — The pilgrims arrive early and from all over, gathering hours before daybreak in an old pecan grove that surrounds a country church. They come, they say, for a dose of simple decency and devotion wrapped up in a Bible lesson.

The teacher is the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter.

Nearly four decades after he left office and despite a body that’s failing after 95 years, the nation’s oldest ex-president ever still teaches Sunday school roughly twice a month at Maranatha Baptist Church in his small hometown of Plains. His message is unfailingly about Jesus, not himself.

The church has only 30 or so members, but as many as 450 people attend any week Carter teaches. About 200 people fill the sanctuary, with pale-green walls and stained glass windows, and others gather in side rooms where the lesson is shown on TVs.

It’s nearly impossible to separate even an ex-president from politics, and some come because they’re Democrats who recall voting for Carter when he was elected in 1976. Almost uniformly, they’re dismayed by the tone of President Trump and his Republican administration.

But Trump has only been in office since 2017 and Carter has been drawing crowds for years. Those who attended Carter’s lesson on Nov. 3 said they just wanted to be in the presence of someone who seems kind, humble and godly despite having been a world leader.

“He’s a role model and an inspiration for both of us both in public service and in faith,” said visitor Doug Kluth. He and his wife Ramona drove 2,400 miles round trip from their home in Columbus, Neb., to see Carter in person.

John and Sarah Dyer packed their four daughters, ages 2 through 12, into their Honda Pilot for the 1,700-mile round trip to Plains from suburban Chicago.

“To see a man...