What did Jimmy Carter say that created such a stir?
Carter took a lot of heat for admitting to Playboy’s Barry Golson and Robert Scheer that he “lusted in his heart” in our November 1976 issue. Asked about his religious beliefs, Carter replied, “Christ said, ‘I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery.’ I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do—and I have done it—and God forgives me for it. But that doesn’t mean that I condemn someone who not only looks on a woman with lust but who leaves his wife and shacks up with somebody out of wedlock. Christ says, Don’t consider yourself better than someone else because one guy screws a whole bunch of women while the other guy is loyal to his wife.
