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.’…
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“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
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