Rev. Andrew Young, a civil rights leader, former mayor, congressman, and ambassador, preached a homily in the National Cathedral at the funeral service for former President Jimmy Carter. His text was from Ephesians 4: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” He told a story during his homily that I’ve been thinking about ever since then. 

Young first met Jimmy Carter, who lived in Plains, Georgia, when Carter was running for governor of that state. Rev. Young reports saying to Carter, “The only thing I know about Plains and Sumter County is that Fred Chappell is sheriff there.”

Fred Chappell had been so hostile to the civil rights movement that Martin Luther King, Jr. had called him the meanest man in the world.

Jimmy Carter said to Young, “Oh, yes, he’s one of my good friends.”

That was the last thing that Young wanted to hear, but he soon learned that Carter would be a fierce ally in gaining civil rights for Blacks in Georgia and later, all over the United States. As Andrew Young got to know Carter, he found him to be a great example of what Martin Luther King, Jr. meant when he said that a strong person “holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites.” Carter had a tough mind and a tender heart and was able to befriend people with whom he had vivid disagreements.

What would it mean to have the meanest man in the world, a person hostile to causes that you were deeply committed to, as a friend? I found it hard to understand. I told someone after hearing Young’s description of Carter that I thought that if Carter were Catholic, the process of nominating him for sainthood would have already started.

I think of George W. Bush as a sincere Christian, and I understand completely why he could not bring himself to shake the hand of Donald Trump as the former presidents made their way to their seats for Carter’s funeral. I understood him better than I did former Vice President Mike Pence, who did shake Trump’s hand.

I read something in a book last week that helped me understand how Jimmy Carter could be Fred Chappell’s friend. The book is called Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed and it’s about a group of Reformed Christians in occupied France during World War II who sheltered hundreds of Jews who would have been deported to death camps in Germany and Poland.

André Trocmé, the pastor who led their efforts, thought that the most dangerous people in the world are “decent” people who do nothing out of indifference or fear while others are humiliated, harmed and exploited. Early in the German occupation, he started urging his congregation to look for “little moves” against destructiveness. They worked their way up for small gestures to brave defiance.

Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed’s author, Philip Hallie, says that he came to understand that Trocmé and his church members loved both the Jews and those who were trying to kill them. By breaking the laws that required Jews to be handed over, they were trying to protect the victims, but they were also trying to protect the government officials who were hell-bent on becoming victimizers. 

One can befriend a mean person by reminding them that God expects mercy of those to whom he has been merciful. If that fails, one can befriend them by short-circuiting the mechanisms of their meanness while showing them, through your example, a better way. That’s what Jimmy Carter did for Fred Chappell. That’s what the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde tried to do for President Donald Trump at the inaugural prayer service a few weeks after Carter’s funeral.

I am praying that God would keep me alert for small moves against destructiveness and mean people within my spheres of influence that I can befriend in similar ways.