Ben Carson, the next US President, and anti-Catholic?

When John Fitzgerald Kennedy became US president, some Protestants were wary. Some thought that too much Catholic influence would be a bad thing.

Now, decades later, an Adventist is possibly amongst those running for the throne that is arguably the most powerful position in the world.

Dr Ben Carson; photo by Gage Skidmore

Dr Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr., a retired neurosurgeon and a Republican, is potentially the next US President. And he is a Seventh-day Adventist.

According to Wikipedia and other sources, some of his views are:

• Medical care for the elderly – “Decisions on who should be treated and who should not be treated would clearly require some national guidelines” [1]
• Marriage – “Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.” [2]
• Evolution – “I don’t believe in evolution…I simply don’t have enough faith to believe that something as complex as our ability to rationalize, think, and plan, and have a moral sense of what’s right and wrong, just appeared.” [3]
• Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) – “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery” [4]
• Recreational cannabis – “Medical use of marijuana in compassionate cases has been proven to be useful, but recognize that marijuana is what is known as a gateway drug– a starter for people who move on to heavier duty drugs. I don’t think this is something we really want for our society.” [5]
• Abortion – “There is no war on them, the war is on their babies, babies that cannot defend themselves. Over the past few decades, we have destroyed 55 million of them. And we have the nerve to call other societies of the past heathen. What we need to do is re-educate the women to understand that they are the defenders of these babies.” [6]

He will, if elected, also be the first US President I’ve ever met. He came to South Africa in the 1990s to separate two siamese twins. He gave a talk afterwards for the local Adventists, and an Adventist friend invited me to go with.

My strongest memory of the event was him saying something about Catholics and soul sleep and the Adventists around me sighing and shaking their heads and saying how terrible the Catholic Church is.

So. Why am I writing about him?

Do I think he is a good candidate for US President? Yes, I do – the pro-life issue makes it for me. In a world dominated by death, perhaps he could do some good.

Do I think he will win the election? I doubt he’ll end up being a finalist. If he is, it’s time the Republicans won again, so then it’s a maybe.

What makes it an interesting situation is that he’s an Adventist – a member of one of the most dishonest and anti-Catholic religions around today.

Adventists think that in the end times, they will be persecuted by Sunday-keeping Christians, and by Catholics in particular. Why? Because they think observing the weekly sabbath according to some, but not all, of the Old Testament sabbath laws, will be the test commandment, the test that shows they are the true followers of God.

Why this is nonsense: see here.

Devil, 13th century

Will Ben Carson be a devil and turn on the Catholics?

Well … probably not. Catholics and Catholic institutions – and Christians in general – are become more and more subject to unfair discrimination worldwide when it comes to practising their beliefs. Carson may or may not support further legislation or court decisions that further this discrimination. He may, on the other hand, turn things around and help all Christians, no matter what day they keep, follow their consciences, as Adventism claims to be strong on. I don’t believe he’ll be rounding up Catholics for torture and execution the way the Adventist church teaches we will do to them in the end times.

That said, I would like to know his views on the Catholic Church and her teachings. And whether he’d dare shake hands with the pope.

So … why AM I writing about him?

Probably the biggest danger associated with him running for, or becoming, the next US President, is that people will focus on his weaknesses, or what they perceive to be his weaknesses, and one of those is his faith. It will be used against him, but Adventists and the Adventist church will use it in their favour – they will use it as an opportunity to evangelise, and they will end up poaching Christians from other denominations.

Adventism, you see, is much like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It presents itself as a normal Christian denomination, and hides the fact that it’s a semi-New Covenant religion, with a lot of Old Covenant mixed in – particularly the Sabbath. And other strange beliefs also get hidden from prospective recruits.

Ellen White icon

Questions I would want to ask of Dr Ben Carson:

• Do you, like other Adventists, believe that the Catholics will persecute you in the end times?
• Do you, like other Adventists, believe that Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel?
• Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God, the Second Person of the Trinity? Or do you, like many of the early Adventists, believe that he was a created being?
• Do you, like other Adventists, believe that eventually Christians will read through the heavenly records and judge God’s decisions about who was saved and who was not?
• Do you, like other Adventists, believe that Jesus will one day stop interceding for mankind, and we will be left without an intercessor?
• Do you believe, like Christians, that Jesus bore our sins, or like Adventists, that Satan will?
• Do you, like other Adventists, believe that Ellen White is a true prophet of God?
• Do you believe that, even though her visions started after a head injury, her head injury had nothing to do with those visions?
• Do you believe Ellen White when she said that the prayers of non-Adventist Christians are an abomination to God?
• Do you believe Ellen White when she said that certain races of men are the result of humans mating with animals?
• Do you believe Ellen White was correct when she said that William Miller was right about Jesus returning in 1843 (and later 1844?)
• Do you believe that Ellen White was correct when she taught that wearing wigs caused insanity?
• Do you, like other Adventists and Ellen White, believe that Jesus had a sinful fallen human nature, or do you believe, like the rest of Christianity, that he did not?
• Do you, like other Adventists, believe that Ellen White could copy passages verbatim from other people’s writings and then claim, correctly, that these things were revealed to her by God?
• Do you believe Ellen White when saw in a vision given to her by God that Jupiter only has 4 moons, and has tall people living on it?
• Do you believe Ellen White when she said that Exodus 35:2-3 contained “senseless restrictions”?

I could go on. And on. And on.

“As people dig down in the weeds of Adventist beliefs, I think what they’ll find will be intriguing, perhaps curious and sometimes disturbing – and Dr. Carson will get associated with all that, whether or not it’s a belief he himself holds. It’s going to create some challenges for him.”
– Kenny Anderson, cited at Ben Carson is a Seventh-day Adventist: 6 predictions + rank best faith for president

The Christian world will need to wake up and educate Christians about why Adventism is so far off track.

The Catholic world will need to educate Catholics about Adventism, and teach why the arguments presented by Adventists are not based on the Bible.

We’re going to see more of Adventism over the next few years, if Dr Ben Carson rises high enough in the US Presidential election game. And we need to be ready for it.

Hopefully this blog will play a role.

Footnotes:

1. Ben Carson in His Own Words
2. Ben Carson: ‘I apologize’ for gay remark
3. Richard Dawkins & Daniel Dennett vs. Francis Collins & Benjamin Carson
4. Ben Carson: Obamacare worst thing ‘since slavery’
5. Ben Carson on Drugs
6. Ben Carson: Ridiculous How Abortion Activists Call Pro-Life People “Anti-Woman”

Further reading:

President Ben Carson, How’s That Sound? – Tesa Beem, ex-Adventist, now Catholic

Dr Ben Carson for President? – commentary from the paranoid side of Adventism

A Tale of Two Men and…Humility: The National Prayer Breakfast 2013 – praise by a Catholic for Carson’s prolife/moral issue views

Ben Carson gives Political Speech on Sabbath – Adventist criticism of Carson

More Proof that Conservatives Won’t Win – Discussion of the Southern Baptist rejection of Carson

Ben Carson, POTUS, and the SDA – Discussion of Carson’s Adventism, and Adventist history

Church keeps distance from Carson’s presidential bid – Discussion of Adventism’s reaction to Carson

Why Isn’t the Seventh-day Adventist Church Endorsing Ben Carson for President? – Columbia Union explanation

Johnson: Dr. Ben Carson needs to follow his own advice – Adventist criticism of Carson’s honesty