and Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Amid the hundreds in a line that weaved through the aisles, out the door and around the block to see former President Carter at a Sugar House bookstore on Tuesday:

Scores who were not old enough to remember Carter's four-year tenure in the Oval Office;

Dozens more who weren't even born when the 39th U.S. president left office in 1981;

And several who have no memory of a president before the current one.

The 81-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner's legacy is now in their hands.

"He was authentic," said Bobby Sakaki, 18. "It's pretty important for presidents to be honest."

Sakaki and his girlfriend arrived at the Barnes & Noble store and took a position on a balcony overlooking the table where the former president signed 1,600 copies of his new book, Our Endangered Values, after learning that all the store's volumes had been sold out hours earlier.

Carter's book is an indictment of conservative Christians who have greatly influenced politics during the current Bush administration. He touches on dozens of political issues from faith-based initiatives to global warming, with a call for a change in politics away from hard-line positions to more reasoned compromises. He uses Scripture and his own faith to defend the separation of church and state.

The young among the throngs, said they were drawn by Carter's humanitarian efforts, by his denouncement of the bitter partisanship in Washington and by his message that being an evangelical Christian doesn't require a person to join the religious right.

Some said they knew little about Carter before the publicity surrounding his 20th book began earlier this month.

Joe Southers heard Carter on the radio, bought the book and discovered a political champion. "I never heard of a fundamentalist Democrat before, and I liked how he tied those together," said Southers, a Bountiful native who was born in 1976, the year Carter became president.

Westminster College student Ashley Farmer sat for several hours on the bookstore floor to meet Carter, whose book she had half finished before he appeared at the signing table to cheers from the crowd.

Farmer doesn't believe the current administration feels there is room for differing views. "But I'd like to," she said. "I think there is still hope."

mcanham@sltrib.com

mlaplante@sltrib.com