The nation paused to honor Jimmy Carter for his service as a naval officer, governor and president, and his four decades of humanitarian work after leaving the White House.

Jimmy Carter was not your stereotypical politician. He was a deeply religious man and more of a moral leader than a political one. I had the good fortune to interview him on three occasions and to join him at the White House to cover the final days of negotiations to get

Mr. Carter said his spiritual rebirth was an “evolutionary thing” rather than “a flash of light or a sudden vision of God speaking.”