00:00:00
Speaker 1: Here, elevated conversation on crucial issues. Boyd Matheson on inside sources
00:00:07
Speaker 1: over the weekend, of course we found out that the former president jimmy carter would receive at home hospice care for the remainder of his life after several stints in and out of the hospital, the former president has touched a lot of people during his life and probably has the most significant post presidency I think of any of our presidents in United States history
00:00:29
Speaker 1: and one of the things that he did that some people knew a little bit about, some knew a lot about it. Maybe the most popular sunday school class in America
00:00:39
Speaker 1: and that was the one taught by the former president which he did in plains Georgia and someone who's actually gone to church and I've been in that sunday school class of course, Mike Mauer serves as a senior adviser of community outreach and intergovernmental affairs in the governor's office. And mike joins us on the line today. Mike, thanks for joining in. And you and I started texting over the weekend as we started to hear a few things about the former president. You've had a number of interactions with him, including going to sunday school.
00:01:08
Speaker 2: Well I I have and it's you know, it's interesting. I would define myself. I grew up in the small town of Karen Utah was always a Reagan Republican and yet it was until I was an adult. I've always been interested in the U. S. Presidency and I heard president carter at a sunday school class and I went to it at maranatha baptist church in plains Georgia
00:01:27
Speaker 2: um and have been half a dozen times since then. And over the course of the time we got to know jan Williams and George Williams, she's kind of the host of the sunday school class and she said, hey come back afterwards and meet the president. He said there's, there's a big group that comes in for sunday school and he welcomes everybody and asks who's been missionaries and such and then who's a pastor.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: And then it goes into his lesson. But in the evening, just a dozen people come back to church and I had a chance to go there a few times and visit one on one with president carter and learn a little bit more about his faith and kind of what he knew about Utah and what he knew about my faith. I'm a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints,
00:02:10
Speaker 1: some of that perspective, we've been talking this week about holy
00:02:14
Speaker 1: and what we learn about God through the faith of others. And give us some perspective. There again, someone who sat in the oval office obviously making big decisions and then to be sharing faith in a small sunday school class gathering in plains Georgia, you had to learn something unique about the president.
00:02:34
Speaker 2: Well it was absolutely fascinating because there you are
00:02:37
Speaker 2: one or two. Uh, first of all you have to get, go through a magnetometer with the secret service to get into sunday school, which you know, I've never been magnum bag. Yeah, nobody's been magnum bag to get into my sunday school class over the years. But he came in very self effacing wonderful sense of humor and then picked up the scriptures and every year taught from the new testament
00:03:00
Speaker 2: and just had a very profound testimony of christ and would talk about what he was doing as a former president. He said, look, I realized I have a unique role and it opens up doors. But his whole focus was on serving his fellow man and woman and child all around the world, whether it was fighting the guinea worm or working on voting rights or habitat for humanity. Work. He truly practiced servant leadership. He truly practice
00:03:26
Speaker 2: what he preached. But it was interesting. He also had, we were around the table and jan introduces me from Utah. And he asked, you know the question here you a member of the LDS church. And I said yes. And he had an interesting observation. He said, one of my favorite gifts when I was president was, he said some elders from your church came back to Washington, D. C. And visited me and gave me a family history book of the carter family says it went back
00:03:53
Speaker 2: years and he said after I left the White House, he said, I didn't have the time to read it in the White House. But after I left the White House. Um I got with one of my Marriott cousins from Pocatello Idaho and we put together this huge carter family reunion and he said how wonderful it was to get everybody together and how one of the most impactful gifts he had received, his president was from um the family history department of the Church of jesus christ of latter day Saints.
00:04:19
Speaker 2: And then he added another kind of a fun story. He said, yeah, I remember Senator Hatch came into me once and there was a prominent political figure who was saying your church shouldn't be recognized in um a country in africa. And I remember having to get involved in and pick up the phone to make some phone calls and say no, the you know the mormons as he referred to us. The mormons are good people, you can let them into your country.
00:04:43
Speaker 2: And and then um then his sister in law. Some of you may remember Billy carter, he had a brother who was a little bit expensive, colorful, colorful to say the least. Well Billy carter of course had since passed away from pancreatic cancer, but his wife Sybil attends maranatha baptist church and she was in our little bible study group that evening and she said oh you're
00:05:06
Speaker 2: you're one of those mormons. She said I just loved the mormon missionaries. I said you do, how do you know them? She says oh Billy and I used to feed them all the time. She said I was so impressed that here were too clean cut in this case young men? There were these two clean cut young men riding around on bikes, telling people about jesus and helping them to live better lives. And she said we're Baptists, but we invited him to our house all the time
00:05:30
Speaker 2: and she says we moved to rural Georgia and they even found us out there and she, she just went on and on about how much she was impressed with missionaries from our church and how she and Billy carter used to feed them often. So it was fun. It was fun to hear of his ties to um you know my faith but was certainly impressive, impressive.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: Both he and Rosalynn carter did so much to practice. There's yeah, they
00:05:55
Speaker 1: did and they, I think he really felt even when he was in the oval office again, whether he agreed with his politics or not. The one thing that you have to say about jimmy carter was that he understood stewardship and I think that weighed on him heavily as president
00:06:10
Speaker 1: and I think he spent the rest of his life making sure that he was being a careful steward of the opportunities he's been given as you pointed out, mike, he, he knew that he had the ability to open doors or to start conversations and I think that was one of the things he took with a great deal of humility
00:06:29
Speaker 1: that it wasn't about, hey look at me, I'm a former president. It was, how can we come together to serve people, to lift humanity and to make a difference in the world. Oh
00:06:39
Speaker 2: and he really did that. I mean he and his wife have been married 75 years. They live in the same home he lived in when he, uh, before he was elected governor of Georgia. It's maybe 2500 square feet. It's probably 50 yeah,
00:06:53
Speaker 2: cards from a low income housing project in planes. And he's very unpretentious and he's put his money. I mean, I mean, so many of our former presidents build huge homes and you know, live a different lifestyle. He's doing what he did before. And, and every time you go to sunday school, it's, it's a kind of returned and reported here are the good things I've tried to do around the world this week. What are all of you doing?
00:07:17
Speaker 2: But it was building homes for habitat or you know, trying to eradicate disease in africa or, or different things like that. So he was a real, he is a man of faith and, and he certainly demonstrated that by the way, both he and his wife conducted their life. Yeah.
00:07:34
Speaker 1: So so important and such a great example that I, I hope everyone slows down. And
00:07:40
Speaker 1: uh, and while we, we hope that he's in great comfort and we know he's getting great care at home that people slow down and really think through, I've been encouraging people to go back to a talk he gave from the Oval office that most people refer to as the malays talk to the country about inflation and energy crisis.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: But he got into this whole idea of this cause for confidence in America, that we have a crisis of confidence mostly because we've lost faith in each other. Uh we've lost faith in government and in community uh and encouraged us to to figure that out. And
00:08:16
Speaker 1: as he said, that's not going to be solved in the Oval Office. Uh not that house, it's going to be in your house and your neighborhood and give us one last thought mike in terms of maybe one of those sunday school lessons from president carter that we all should be thinking about or noodling on this week.
00:08:32
Speaker 2: Well, I think it, it has to be uh love one another and his tone matters so much. And I was so impressed again, I didn't agree with all of his politics. I didn't agree with his stand on Israel or the hostages are different things that all got set aside and he came together in brotherhood and sisterhood and people of different faiths, not just the christian faith, but it was, hey, we need to work together. We need to respect each other. We need to love one another. And he and his wife
00:09:00
Speaker 2: demonstrated that for, you know, every year since they've left the White House and it's been a true inspiration in this country And I think around the world.
00:09:08
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Mike Mauer serves as senior advisor of community outreach and intergovernmental affairs in the governor's office and he's everywhere. And he is someone who has actually attended sunday school with the former president jimmy carter on a number of occasions. Great insight, great reflections as always. Mike now appreciate your service and appreciate your insight today. Thanks.
00:09:29
Speaker 1: Alright again, that's Mike Mauer from the Governor's office and uh, that's got to be just such an interesting thing to, to go from uh, occupying the oval office, the highest office in the land and then being just as comfortable, maybe more comfortable
00:09:44
Speaker 1: standing in front of a very small group of people at a church in Plains Georgia as the sunday school teacher. But I think the former president and I'll say it again. I think his post presidency uh may well be the most significant of any president in our nation's history. Not because he went around giving great speeches, not because he built great buildings on college campuses,
00:10:10
Speaker 1: but because he built individuals right in his own backyard and then encourage them to go do it for others. All right. That wraps up our number one of inside sources here on KsL newsradio will step aside for top of the hour news. Don't go anywhere. Our number to come up next on KsL Newsradio, we'll be right back
00:10:43
Speaker 1: KsL FM. Midvale KsL Salt Lake City. Listen on the KSL News radio app and in your car at 102.7 f. M. KsL Newsradio Utah's All Day Companion for News.
Speaker 1: Here, elevated conversation on crucial issues. Boyd Matheson on inside sources
00:00:07
Speaker 1: over the weekend, of course we found out that the former president jimmy carter would receive at home hospice care for the remainder of his life after several stints in and out of the hospital, the former president has touched a lot of people during his life and probably has the most significant post presidency I think of any of our presidents in United States history
00:00:29
Speaker 1: and one of the things that he did that some people knew a little bit about, some knew a lot about it. Maybe the most popular sunday school class in America
00:00:39
Speaker 1: and that was the one taught by the former president which he did in plains Georgia and someone who's actually gone to church and I've been in that sunday school class of course, Mike Mauer serves as a senior adviser of community outreach and intergovernmental affairs in the governor's office. And mike joins us on the line today. Mike, thanks for joining in. And you and I started texting over the weekend as we started to hear a few things about the former president. You've had a number of interactions with him, including going to sunday school.
00:01:08
Speaker 2: Well I I have and it's you know, it's interesting. I would define myself. I grew up in the small town of Karen Utah was always a Reagan Republican and yet it was until I was an adult. I've always been interested in the U. S. Presidency and I heard president carter at a sunday school class and I went to it at maranatha baptist church in plains Georgia
00:01:27
Speaker 2: um and have been half a dozen times since then. And over the course of the time we got to know jan Williams and George Williams, she's kind of the host of the sunday school class and she said, hey come back afterwards and meet the president. He said there's, there's a big group that comes in for sunday school and he welcomes everybody and asks who's been missionaries and such and then who's a pastor.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: And then it goes into his lesson. But in the evening, just a dozen people come back to church and I had a chance to go there a few times and visit one on one with president carter and learn a little bit more about his faith and kind of what he knew about Utah and what he knew about my faith. I'm a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints,
00:02:10
Speaker 1: some of that perspective, we've been talking this week about holy
00:02:14
Speaker 1: and what we learn about God through the faith of others. And give us some perspective. There again, someone who sat in the oval office obviously making big decisions and then to be sharing faith in a small sunday school class gathering in plains Georgia, you had to learn something unique about the president.
00:02:34
Speaker 2: Well it was absolutely fascinating because there you are
00:02:37
Speaker 2: one or two. Uh, first of all you have to get, go through a magnetometer with the secret service to get into sunday school, which you know, I've never been magnum bag. Yeah, nobody's been magnum bag to get into my sunday school class over the years. But he came in very self effacing wonderful sense of humor and then picked up the scriptures and every year taught from the new testament
00:03:00
Speaker 2: and just had a very profound testimony of christ and would talk about what he was doing as a former president. He said, look, I realized I have a unique role and it opens up doors. But his whole focus was on serving his fellow man and woman and child all around the world, whether it was fighting the guinea worm or working on voting rights or habitat for humanity. Work. He truly practiced servant leadership. He truly practice
00:03:26
Speaker 2: what he preached. But it was interesting. He also had, we were around the table and jan introduces me from Utah. And he asked, you know the question here you a member of the LDS church. And I said yes. And he had an interesting observation. He said, one of my favorite gifts when I was president was, he said some elders from your church came back to Washington, D. C. And visited me and gave me a family history book of the carter family says it went back
00:03:53
Speaker 2: years and he said after I left the White House, he said, I didn't have the time to read it in the White House. But after I left the White House. Um I got with one of my Marriott cousins from Pocatello Idaho and we put together this huge carter family reunion and he said how wonderful it was to get everybody together and how one of the most impactful gifts he had received, his president was from um the family history department of the Church of jesus christ of latter day Saints.
00:04:19
Speaker 2: And then he added another kind of a fun story. He said, yeah, I remember Senator Hatch came into me once and there was a prominent political figure who was saying your church shouldn't be recognized in um a country in africa. And I remember having to get involved in and pick up the phone to make some phone calls and say no, the you know the mormons as he referred to us. The mormons are good people, you can let them into your country.
00:04:43
Speaker 2: And and then um then his sister in law. Some of you may remember Billy carter, he had a brother who was a little bit expensive, colorful, colorful to say the least. Well Billy carter of course had since passed away from pancreatic cancer, but his wife Sybil attends maranatha baptist church and she was in our little bible study group that evening and she said oh you're
00:05:06
Speaker 2: you're one of those mormons. She said I just loved the mormon missionaries. I said you do, how do you know them? She says oh Billy and I used to feed them all the time. She said I was so impressed that here were too clean cut in this case young men? There were these two clean cut young men riding around on bikes, telling people about jesus and helping them to live better lives. And she said we're Baptists, but we invited him to our house all the time
00:05:30
Speaker 2: and she says we moved to rural Georgia and they even found us out there and she, she just went on and on about how much she was impressed with missionaries from our church and how she and Billy carter used to feed them often. So it was fun. It was fun to hear of his ties to um you know my faith but was certainly impressive, impressive.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: Both he and Rosalynn carter did so much to practice. There's yeah, they
00:05:55
Speaker 1: did and they, I think he really felt even when he was in the oval office again, whether he agreed with his politics or not. The one thing that you have to say about jimmy carter was that he understood stewardship and I think that weighed on him heavily as president
00:06:10
Speaker 1: and I think he spent the rest of his life making sure that he was being a careful steward of the opportunities he's been given as you pointed out, mike, he, he knew that he had the ability to open doors or to start conversations and I think that was one of the things he took with a great deal of humility
00:06:29
Speaker 1: that it wasn't about, hey look at me, I'm a former president. It was, how can we come together to serve people, to lift humanity and to make a difference in the world. Oh
00:06:39
Speaker 2: and he really did that. I mean he and his wife have been married 75 years. They live in the same home he lived in when he, uh, before he was elected governor of Georgia. It's maybe 2500 square feet. It's probably 50 yeah,
00:06:53
Speaker 2: cards from a low income housing project in planes. And he's very unpretentious and he's put his money. I mean, I mean, so many of our former presidents build huge homes and you know, live a different lifestyle. He's doing what he did before. And, and every time you go to sunday school, it's, it's a kind of returned and reported here are the good things I've tried to do around the world this week. What are all of you doing?
00:07:17
Speaker 2: But it was building homes for habitat or you know, trying to eradicate disease in africa or, or different things like that. So he was a real, he is a man of faith and, and he certainly demonstrated that by the way, both he and his wife conducted their life. Yeah.
00:07:34
Speaker 1: So so important and such a great example that I, I hope everyone slows down. And
00:07:40
Speaker 1: uh, and while we, we hope that he's in great comfort and we know he's getting great care at home that people slow down and really think through, I've been encouraging people to go back to a talk he gave from the Oval office that most people refer to as the malays talk to the country about inflation and energy crisis.
00:08:00
Speaker 1: But he got into this whole idea of this cause for confidence in America, that we have a crisis of confidence mostly because we've lost faith in each other. Uh we've lost faith in government and in community uh and encouraged us to to figure that out. And
00:08:16
Speaker 1: as he said, that's not going to be solved in the Oval Office. Uh not that house, it's going to be in your house and your neighborhood and give us one last thought mike in terms of maybe one of those sunday school lessons from president carter that we all should be thinking about or noodling on this week.
00:08:32
Speaker 2: Well, I think it, it has to be uh love one another and his tone matters so much. And I was so impressed again, I didn't agree with all of his politics. I didn't agree with his stand on Israel or the hostages are different things that all got set aside and he came together in brotherhood and sisterhood and people of different faiths, not just the christian faith, but it was, hey, we need to work together. We need to respect each other. We need to love one another. And he and his wife
00:09:00
Speaker 2: demonstrated that for, you know, every year since they've left the White House and it's been a true inspiration in this country And I think around the world.
00:09:08
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Mike Mauer serves as senior advisor of community outreach and intergovernmental affairs in the governor's office and he's everywhere. And he is someone who has actually attended sunday school with the former president jimmy carter on a number of occasions. Great insight, great reflections as always. Mike now appreciate your service and appreciate your insight today. Thanks.
00:09:29
Speaker 1: Alright again, that's Mike Mauer from the Governor's office and uh, that's got to be just such an interesting thing to, to go from uh, occupying the oval office, the highest office in the land and then being just as comfortable, maybe more comfortable
00:09:44
Speaker 1: standing in front of a very small group of people at a church in Plains Georgia as the sunday school teacher. But I think the former president and I'll say it again. I think his post presidency uh may well be the most significant of any president in our nation's history. Not because he went around giving great speeches, not because he built great buildings on college campuses,
00:10:10
Speaker 1: but because he built individuals right in his own backyard and then encourage them to go do it for others. All right. That wraps up our number one of inside sources here on KsL newsradio will step aside for top of the hour news. Don't go anywhere. Our number to come up next on KsL Newsradio, we'll be right back
00:10:43
Speaker 1: KsL FM. Midvale KsL Salt Lake City. Listen on the KSL News radio app and in your car at 102.7 f. M. KsL Newsradio Utah's All Day Companion for News.
