Former president offers views on morals in ‘Values’

It’s been said that the best way to get a heated discussion going is to bring up one of three subjects: religion, politics or sex.

In his new book, “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis,” former President Jimmy Carter does all three – sometimes simultaneously.

Where is America going wrong – or right? Carter has many strong opinions, and although he says that he is a major advocate of separation of church and state, this book weighs in with a bent that’s more religious than not.

It’s no secret that Carter was a spiritual sort before, during and after his years in the White House. Although he says he attempted to keep his religious beliefs out of the office, as dictated by law, he admits he did discuss religion with many world leaders at different times, including Deng Xiaopeng of China and President Park Chung Hee of South Korea.

Here, Carter offers his opinions on the moral problems with which he sees Americans and American politicians struggling, including the equality of women in private and religious sectors; the abortion debate, birth control and stem-cell research; creationism and the Bible; the right and politics; and terrorism and the war in the Middle East.

Much of “Our Endangered Values” reads like a college thesis, and although many readers are going to agree with what Carter says, others are going to see overgeneralizations.

This book tends to ramble in several directions and never really settles into a comfortable reading groove. And it never quite becomes one type of book or another, which is going to be a nightmare for booksellers and librarians.

Will they shelve it in the religion section, the current events section or in biography?