Home Truths From Ben Carson

If you are a Christian, some of you may have heard of the African-American believer, Dr Benjamin Carson. He is an amazing man with an amazing testimony. Outside of Christian circles however he may not have been so well known. Except for what happened on February 7.

After this date it seems that all of America is talking about him. He certainly rocked the political world and the media. On that date he gave a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Boy, did that talk stir things up. Here it seems we may have a new contender for the White House.

That is what many people are now urging Dr Carson to do. His talk was so eloquent, reasonable, common sensical and devoid of political correctness, that many in the conservative wing of politics at least are already discussing his possible role in a presidential bid in 2016.

To see just what I am talking about, please have a look at this 27 minute video of him speaking at the Prayer Breakfast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFb6NU1giRA

But first, a few snippets about the man. Dr. Carson is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital and the author of several best-selling books. He started off in less than ideal circumstances. He was born into poverty and a single-parent family. His mother was married at 13, and she was one of 24 children.

He was the class dummy at school, and hated reading. But his mother refused to be treated as a victim, and she refused to have her family dependent on welfare. She said to Ben, “You weren’t born to be a failure, Bennie. You can do it!” She insisted that her kids stop watching TV and start reading books. Ben was not at all thrilled about this, but as he read, he learned about great men who did great accomplishments.

The rest as they say is history. He is now one of our most successful and influential Black Americans. His story is told in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990). This book has also been made into a film. His amazing story has resulted in him speaking at the Prayer Breakfast – for a second time.

To learn more about Carson, see the first link below, “7 Fascinating Facts about Dr. Carson”. But back to his speech.

The highlight of his talk last week – although there were many highlights – was when he started opining about Obamacare, proposing instead smarter and more efficient measures to reform health care. And the President was there on the platform with him, looking very uncomfortable indeed. He was not very thrilled either when Carson spoke of the tragedy of the US debt.

I could have entitled this article, “A Tale of Two Blacks”. The differences between these two men in just about every regard are quite incredible. For some odd reason Americans voted for BHO twice. Much of this was simply because of the fact that he was Black.

But far better and more qualified Blacks exist, including those who are genuine Christians with genuine morality and a genuine love for America. Dr Carson is one such person and he would make a great POTUS. And this is not just me going ballistic here. Plenty of other commentators have been saying the same thing.

Barbie Crafts said this: “Benjamin Carson has absolutely caught the nation by storm with his address Thursday, Feb. 7, at the National Prayer Breakfast…. The Washington Times had an article on Feb. 8, entitled, ‘Conservative Dr. Ben Carson speech upstages Obama at prayer breakfast.’ This is basically the way the appearance is being billed across the media.

“Dr. Carson, an African-American raised in poverty by a single mother, spoke on various issues facing America with a light touch of humor. Drawing from his life, he stressed the importance of education and reading, stressed by his illiterate mother who was married at 13 years old. She forced him to read two books a week from the library and to submit a book report to her that she was not even able to read. He smiled when he explained that he and his brother did not know that! He discussed his disdain for ‘political correctness,’ stressing the need to be respectful with those with whom we disagree, but not be afraid to express opinions.”

Even the Wall Street Journal featured this enthused article: “Ben Carson for President”. It begins: “Whether this weekend finds you blowing two feet of snow off the driveway or counting the hours until ‘Downton Abbey,’ make time to watch the video of Dr. Ben Carson speaking to the White House prayer breakfast this week.

“Seated in view to his right are Senator Jeff Sessions and President Obama. One doesn’t look happy. You know something’s coming when Dr. Carson says, ‘It’s not my intention to offend anyone. But it’s hard not to. The PC police are out in force everywhere.’

“Dr. Carson tossed over the PC police years ago. Raised by a single mother in inner-city Detroit, he was as he tells it ‘a horrible student with a horrible temper.’ Today he’s director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins and probably the most renowned specialist in his field.

“Late in his talk he dropped two very un-PC ideas. The first is an unusual case for a flat tax: ‘What we need to do is come up with something simple. And when I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the universe, God, and he’s given us a system. It’s called a tithe.’…

[amazonshowcase_c592f8f04582251807acffd5643ec090]

“Not surprisingly, a practicing physician has un-PC thoughts on health care: ‘Here’s my solution: When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed—pretax—from the time you’re born ’til the time you die. If you die, you can pass it on to your family members, and there’s nobody talking about death panels. We can make contributions for people who are indigent. Instead of sending all this money to some bureaucracy, let’s put it in their HSAs. Now they have some control over their own health care. And very quickly they’re going to learn how to be responsible.’ The Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon may not be politically correct, but he’s closer to correct than we’ve heard in years.”

Let me conclude by offering a few thoughts from his new book, America the Beautiful (Zondervan, 2012). In it he discusses how many of the great nations of the past have declined. They all had “an inordinate emphasis on sports and entertainment, a fixation with lifestyles of the rich and famous, political corruption, and the loss of a moral compass.”

He continues, “The question is, can we learn from the experience of those nations that preceded us and take corrective action, or must we inexorably follow the same self-destructive course?” And he said this in an interview about the book:

“Benjamin Franklin, at the time of the Constitutional Convention, when the whole thing was about to fall apart, stood up in front of the whole assembly, at 81 years old, and said, ‘Gentlemen, stop.’ He said, ‘During the Revolutionary War, every other phrase out of our mouth was, ‘Lord help us,’ and now you don’t even want to talk about God.’

“He said, ‘We need to get down on our knees, and we need to pray for wisdom.’ And the whole assembly knelt and prayed, and when they got up, they put together a 16 and 1/3 page document known as the Constitution of the United States.

“There is no question about who we are. All you have to do is look at our money. Every coin, every bill says, ‘In God We Trust.’ Our Pledge of Allegiance says, ‘We are one nation under God.’ The fourth stanza of the National Anthem talks about God. We really shouldn’t be trying to deny who we are, because traditionally before the decline of a great nation, they forget who they are. We’re in the process of throwing it away.”

Hey, the phrase, “President Ben Carson” is sounding better and better all the time.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/08/7-fascinating-facts-about-dr-carson-the-prayer-breakfast-speaker-who-attacked-political-correctness-and-the-debt-in-front-of-obama/
http://www.examiner.com/article/watch-dr-benjamin-carson-wow-the-national-prayer-breakfast-video-included
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323452204578292302358207828.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h
http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/BibleStudyAndTheology/perspectives/vonBuseck_Dr_Ben_Carson_America_The_Beautiful.aspx

[1365 words]

12 Replies to “Home Truths From Ben Carson”

  1. Dr Carson is not afraid to challenge the establishment. See:
    Uncelebrated celebrity surgeon:
    Emory profs complain over Ben Carson commencement
    Marvin Olasky, World, 18 May 2012

    Emory University should have had bragging rights for this commencement season: Internationally renowned neurosurgeon and humanitarian Ben Carson delivered the keynote address at the university’s 167th commencement on May 14.
    But campus bragging about commencement stopped early in May once many faculty members and students learned that Carson has faith in Christ and disdain for evolution. Four Emory biology professors complained to the school newspaper: “Carson argues that…there are no transitional fossils that provide evidence for the evolution of humans from a common ancestor with other apes…and that life is too complex to have originated by the natural process of evolution.” …

    and

    Consternation over Ben Carson, Evolution, and Morality
    By Richard Weikart, 15 May 2012:

    Yesterday, May 14th, almost 500 Emory University faculty and students expressed their dismay that their commencement speaker did not toe the ideological line when it came to evolutionary biology. Yes, gasp, the renowned Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Ben Carson does not believe in evolutionary theory. Not only that, but biology professors at Emory and their supporters also accuse Carson of committing a thought crime because he allegedly “equates acceptance of evolution with a lack of ethics and morality.”
    Since I am a historian who has studied and published on the history of evolutionary ethics, I was rather surprised by the Emory faculties’ consternation over Carson’s belief that evolution undermines objective ethics and morality. Last summer I attended a major interdisciplinary conference at Oxford University on “The Evolution of Morality and the Morality of Evolution.” Thus I am well aware that there are a variety of viewpoints in academe on this topic. Nonetheless, many evolutionists—from Darwin to the present (including quite a few at that Oxford conference)—have argued and are still arguing precisely the point that Dr. Carson was highlighting: they claim that morality has evolved and thus has no objective existence.…

    Jonathan Sarfati, US

  2. I’ve shared President Ben Carson’s speech three times today. He has holy spirit fever. Yes quickly, the quicker he’s in…..the better.
    Daniel Kempton

  3. Thanks for sharing these articles Dr. Sarfati!! I’m liking President Dr. Carson more and more!! It’s nice to find an articulate, rational, brilliant, and gentle human being who swims against the tide!!! I pray that God really does get on his case about running in 2016… He has more commonsense in his little finger then practically everybody in the Capitol building combined!!! What a godly example would Dr Carson be as Commander-in-Chief!! However B. Hussein is the President America deserves at the moment… Dr Carson is what they need!!

    Joel van der Horst

  4. Also, you know a person is smart when they reject the Neo-Darwinist hypothesis!!! Courageous as well!!

    Joel van der Horst

  5. Good news that we have found an articulate, rational, brilliant and gentle human being who swims against the tide. I watched the YouTube clip and also another related clip in which an appoplectic radio show host was explaining the horrors of Obamacare in its hundred-page format and how Dr Carson had come up with a much better idea for the free individual in a few short sentences. President Obama looked distinctly uncomfortable, touching his face nervously whenever something was said which exposed the clear and present dangers of his leadership.
    Rachel Smith, UK

  6. The idea of the evolution of morality may explain why many priests I know are tolerant of or comfortable with or indeed promote a homosexual agenda and why many of the hierarchy chose not to see or indeed agree. Is this the evolution of conscience? I thought evolution took a long time.

    B T Walters

  7. Can anyone name a freedom that has been achieved, or not deteriorated after Darwin?

    Does Darwin define the beginning of the decline in the Church and hence the decline of the West?

    If Mangalwadi is right in his book: “The Book That Made Your World – How The Bible Created The Soul Of Western Civilization” then belief in the Bible gave us our freedoms, our science and our prosperity. So it follows that rejection of the Bible, in particular the church’s capitulation re creation following Darwin, is the cause of the perilous state of the Western churches where we are incapable of mounting a rational defence of the gospel.

    Peter Newland

  8. Well! — now we have a man to pray for, for the American presidency — but where, oh where, can we find such a one for Australia?
    Anna Cook

  9. God has blessed America with several committed Christian politicians, among whom Ted Cruz is the most unflinchingly conservative politically. Rand Paul, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Marco Rubio and a few others carry both the Cross and the flag with commitment and conviction.

    Of course, they pay the price as they are constantly derided and distorted by the media.

    I hope Australia and the rest of the Western world have or will have rise of such leaders in their midst. God is calling and will answer when we meet his conditions in II Chronicles 7:14.

    Right now, the West has passed laws that enable us to break all God’s commandments and some that would force us to do so. This automatically puts us into a Leviticus chapter 26 situation…which is to bring disaster and destruction upon our heads.

    Sibyl Smith

  10. I am sure this is the best news for America yet. Go Dr. Carson!
    For the first time in my life I somewhat wish I could be an American, if I had a chance to vote for him. I am with Anna though, where will we find a person like that for Australia, for we need him and I say him with deliberate choice.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

  11. Ursula Bennett, You all could try to persuade the fearless and uncompromising Prof. Bill Muehlenberg to enter the political arena.
    Sibyl Smith

  12. When asked if he would run for president Dr Carson replied, “If the Lord grabbed me by the collar and made me do it I would. It’s not my intention.”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onhpqWsneAo

    But yes, I pray for godly men or women of integrity and moral fortitude to lead our nations. European nations, Britain, Australia and the US are all in dire need.

    Meredith Gemeren

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *