Jimmy Carter Warns: Religion, Politics Too Cozy

For a man who evangelized foreign leaders and taught Sunday school while U.S. president, Jimmy Carter has some strong words for what he sees as an "excessive melding of religion and politics."

And it began, he said, with the denomination he called home for more than seven decades: the Southern Baptist Convention.

"It's now metastasized to other religions, where an actual affiliation between the denomination and the more conservative elements of the Republican Party is almost official," Carter said during a stop here to promote his new book, "White House Diary."