Carter's public persona was carefully cultivated to portray him as a humble conservative Christian peanut farmer from the deep south. In private though he was a raging egomaniac, at least according to the Secret Service agents on his detail. He gave away the Panama canal, allowed our embassy hostages in Tehran to languish in captivity for 444 days, and then revealed the existence of the F117 stealth fighter in a transparent attempt to boost his lagging poll numbers against Reagan.

He was obsessed with being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. After he left office, he became a menace to succeeding administrations (Bush and Clinton specifically) by meddling in foreign affairs because he saw himself as the only person capable of negotiating difficult deals or agreements (e.g. North Korea during Clinton). He and his wife created the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project (CWP) in 1984, which partnered with Habitat for Humanity, in an additional effort to get the Peace Prize, which he was eventually awarded in 2002.

This may sound harsh, but this is why people my age and older who lived through his administration have for years been wanting him to just go away.

Edit: I do not know if he is a Christian or not. Only he and God know that. I simply posted facts and observations.