Former President Jimmy Carter lays the blame on religious and political fundamentalists he says now control the Republican Party.

Carter takes aim at the Bush administration and the Christian Right in his 20th book, Our Endangered Values. But he says his concern is not based on partisan differences.

"I became increasingly concerned about the radical departure of this administration on basic values of our nation," Carter said in a telephone interview Monday with The Salt Lake Tribune. "But this is not a partisan division between Democrats or Republicans . . . but between this particular administration and all previous presidents' terms, including George Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan."

Carter will sign copies of his new book at the Sugar House Barnes & Noble (1104 E. 2100 South) beginning at 6 p.m. today.

He expects his book "to resonate deeply" with Utah's Mormon population.

"Mormons are committed to peace. We worship the Prince of Peace not the Prince of Pre-emptive War," Carter said. "Mormons have always shown a strong concern about poor or deprived people. This administration has shown an ostentatious preference for the richest Americans. I think Mormons have shown a great respect for the environment. This administration is the least concerned about environmental issues of any in history."

Carter's rambling book looks at a variety of political issues from gun rights to abortion and the Iraq war to the separation of church and state through the lens of his evangelical Christian faith.

He contrasts his liberal religious views with those of Christian fundamentalists, whom he believes have irresponsibly become too intertwined in politics.

"Narrowly defined theological beliefs have been adopted as the rigid agenda of a political party," he writes. "It is the unprecedented combined impact of fundamentalism in religion and politics that has helped to create the deep and increasingly disturbing divisions among our people."

For Carter, religion always influences a person's individual views, but religious groups shouldn't actively attempt to influence politics. He says scripture actually supports separating faith from government.

"During the last two decades, Christian fundamentalists have increasingly and openly challenged and rejected Jesus' admonition to 'render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's,' " Carter wrote.

Paul Mero, president of the Sutherland Institute, a Utah-based conservative think-tank, agreed that organized religious groups should not lobby the government, rather individual religious people should engage in the political process.

"It has always fascinated me that lobbying Congress is somehow a ministry," Mero said. "Today, what we have are churches, many times using their tax exempt status and their literal bully pulpit to influence politics in a very unhealthy way."

Of great concern to the former president and 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner is how fundamentalists have turned many debates into "black-and-white" issues, which erodes the ability to negotiate solutions and find common ground.

"A fundamentalist believes they are 100 percent right," Carter told The Tribune. "And that creates an international attitude that you are either with us or against us. It wipes out the possibility for international cooperation, for instance, with the War on Terrorism."

He said "the most accurate predictor of party affiliation" is not a person's stand on gay marriage or abortion, but "whether international disputes can be better resolved by diplomacy or by military action." This is a division Carter says is caused by the pre-emptive war policy of fundamentalists, also known as neoconservatives.

But Mero believes Carter places too much blame on the Republicans without chastising Democrats who he says also push to polarize politics.

And former U.S. Rep Jim Hansen, R-Utah, said Carter is exaggerating.

"I think that President Carter has overplayed that, frankly," he said. "This goes back to our Founding Fathers. There was some really fundamentalist thinking at that time and it has continued all the way to FDR."

Carter doesn't expect fundamentalists to keep their political power for long.

"I think it is going to die away," Carter said.

And he points to the bipartisan demand for quarterly reports on the Iraq war and the overwhelming Senate vote against torture as starting points.

"The reaction of Americans toward more moderate approaches, to finding nuances of compromise, of dealing with issues on merits and not just on a partisan basis . . . those kind of lessons are now being learned by many people now in the Congress."

mcanham@sltrib.com

Carter on the issues

l Pollution: "America is by far the world's leading polluter, and our government's abandonment of its responsibilities is just another tragic step in a series of actions that have departed from the historic bipartisan protection of the global environment. Our proper stewardship of God's world is a personal and political moral commitment."

l Rich vs. Poor: "It is distressing to see our great nation defaulting on its obligation to share a respectable portion of our wealth with the most destitute people on Earth."

l Iraq War: "If Saddam Hussein had actually possessed a large nuclear, biological, or chemical arsenal, then the American invasion would have resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties, many of them U.S. troops. There is no evidence that British or American leaders really expected or prepared for this eventuality. We cannot ignore the development of such weapons in any potential enemy nation or organization, but unilateral military action based on erroneous or deliberately distorted intelligence is not the answer."

l Gay Marriage: "Rather than letting the controversial issues remain so divisive among our citizens, perhaps we should separate the two basic approaches, by letting governments define and protect equal rights for citizens, including those of "civil unions," and letting church congregations define "holy matrimony."

l Abortion: I just don't feel our [Democratic] party ought to be for any sort of abortion on demand. I have a deep feeling that Jesus Christ, whom I worship, would not approve abortions, unless a mother's life and health were in danger or unless the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. I think we ought to minimize our commitment to abortion, but I am not in favor of a constitutional amendment that would outlaw Roe v. Wade."