Jimmy Carter On 'Moral Crisis'

Fundamentalists Share Blame For Chasm In America

(CBS) 
In the book, he also shares his views about issues such as abortion, the death penalty, women's rights, America's foreign policy and global image, and protecting the environment.

Although these issues have been debated for decades, Carter says: "I think most Americans know the individual cases that we've had massive tax breaks for the rich, that we have gone to an unnecessary war under false or misleading premises, that we've abandoned basic human rights, and are now debating whether it's right for us to torture prisoners, and that we've abandoned commitment to the environment. Americans know those individual pieces of the pattern in Washington. I decided to write this book to show that it's a broad-based change in the basic moral values of America, about which most Americans are not familiar."

Carter notes the differences between Democrats and Republicans are much stronger and partisan than when he was in the White House. He writes that most of the general public are, fortunately, not as "rigid and confrontational" as Washington politicians. "In preparing this book, I have searched for the best assessments of American public opinion, so that I could understand the reasons for, and the extent of, agreements and divisions among our people."

So would religion and politics ever be the way it was?

"Yes," Carter says. "I really don't believe that a vast majority of the American people approve of what has been happening recently in Washington. And I think after they read my book and realize the profound nature of the change, there's going to be an even greater desire to see the changes back to what we have always valued as American moral principles."

"Our Endangered Values" is published by Simon and Schuster, which is owned
by Viacom, the same parent company as CBSNews.com.