Our Endangered Values:
America's Moral Crisis
By Jimmy Carter. Simon & Schuster
(New York, 2005). 212 pp., $25.

It Takes a Family:
Conservatism and the Common Good
By Rick Santorum. ISI Books (Wilmington, Del., 2005). 449 pp., $25.

The titles of new books by Jimmy Carter and Rick Santorum suggest they have much in common. But Santorum's "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good" and Carter's "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis" offer a study in contrasts, beginning with the authors themselves.

Carter is the fading star, a Democratic former U.S. president. Santorum is the rising star, a Republican U.S. senator from Pennsylvania with apparent presidential aspirations.

Consider, too, the focus of their books. Carter's concern is with the global implications of America's moral perspective. Santorum is concerned with the domestic implications of our moral outlook --- what happens in families and neighborhoods.

To know about the plight of unwed mothers and their children in the United States, see Santorum's book. To know about Pakistani children as young as 8 whom we have imprisoned in the war on terrorism, check out Carter's.

Both want to speak to audiences broader than their ordinary consistencies, so both begin with transcendent biographical notes. The Democrat is an active Christian Bible study leader and former military officer and businessman. The Republican references his humble roots and his start in politics representing the interests of the poor.

Comparisons and contrasts aside, what's left?

Santorum gives us a thick tome that is likely the basis for a presidential bid. He rallies the troops with a constant harangue against "liberals" and "village elders" --- a not-too-subtle riposte to a book by Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible opponent in the 2008 presidential election.

But candidates for national office must appear to stand above the partisan fray, so Santorum's book describes a number of innovative and apparently successful programs for social reform that he has been able to launch in partnership with some of the Senate's most liberal members.

Candidates also need to be of sound character, and here Santorum is at his best. He projects the image of a conscientious Catholic husband and father who understands and embraces the responsibilities inherent in each role and, yet, who is humble enough to admit he has difficulty balancing those roles with the burdens of the Senate.

Without a political purpose, his book would be much better and briefer. Beneath the incessant scolding one finds a thoughtful and important discussion about the connection between strong families and a safe, healthy, humane society. Santorum also presents a serious argument for subsidiarity, a Catholic principle which says problems should be dealt with at the most proximate level possible.

Late in the book, Santorum touches on the truly ironic: "When it comes to children and the family, there are opportunities to find common ground --- as long as we can find a way to avoid polarization that we too often find ourselves stumbling into," he writes. Regrettably, his book is likely to foster more polarization.

If Santorum's book is marred by being too partisan, Carter's is marred by the fact that he gets some very basic things wrong.

At one point he speaks of the "worship of Mary." (Christians do not worship Mary.) Discussing Terri Schiavo, he says judges refused to "extend her life artificially." (Shiavo had a feeding tube, but was not on artificial life support.) Referencing the Vatican's rejection of liberation theology, he says that this "and other Vatican policies have resulted in a massive shift of Catholics to Protestant congregations." (Statistical data clearly show there's been no massive change.)

Both authors offer eloquent defenses of some basic American tenets, and for that reason alone both books are worth a critical read. And despite their obvious differences there is a final irony: The liberal Carter's Habitat for Humanity program is precisely the kind of program the conservative Santorum endorses.

It's enough to tempt one to wish for a president who embodied the best ideas in both books. Regrettably, at this point we'll have to settle for the books.

Owen Phelps is president and CEO of the Midwest Leadership Institute, director of communications and publications for the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., and a faculty member in the Cardinal Stritch University College of Business.