The joke would be to say that Dr. Ben Carson is the gift that keeps on giving, but what if it’s, you know, giving people cancer?
The lede, from Kyle Cheney of Politico:
Ben Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from POLITICO, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
So it would seem the good doctor, who has spent the years between his fame as a neurosurgeon and his infamy as a presidential candidate hawking books to Seventh-Day Adventist and other churches, lied.
Dr. Carson, calling himself a Christian, went before Christian congregations and bore false witness.
For profit.
At this point, it’s true, we’re not surprised.
Personal anecdote, but bear with me. It starts with Steve Benen, over two and a half years ago, noting what turns out to be the beginning of Dr. Carson’s rise to political prominence at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast:
Indeed, last year, Obama explained how his faith influences his views on public policy, including asking the very wealthy to sacrifice just a little in order to help the rest of American society. “[A]s a Christian,” the president said, his approach “coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required’.” Republicans were outraged – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) condemned the speech on the Senate floor; Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) left the breakfast in protest, and scandal-plagued lobbyist Ralph Reed said Obama went “over the line.”
Obama’s remarks this week, which focused on the need for humility, drew fewer far-right complaints, but the president was preceded by Dr. Benjamin Carson, a conservative physician, who used his time at the microphone to complain about “fiscal irresponsibly” and the national debt, before insisting that God wants a 10 percent flat tax.
Though conservatives were outraged that Obama tried to “politicize” the prayer breakfast in 2012, the right quickly celebrated Carson’s remarks this week.
It’s funny how that works out, isn’t it?
In our extended family is an older couple long associated with the Seventh-Day Adventist church. From time to time, they pass along materials they picked up at church, hoping to help educate us. Like the seminar on how to use alternative medicine to ward off Ebola. Or the televangelist telling people to pay him in order to explain how to manage one’s personal finances. Or, you know, the books of Dr. Ben Carson.
Two, maybe three months? That’s all the time it took before someone put copies of Dr. Carson’s books in my hands and started raving about how smart and talented he is, and while I won’t extend this sentiment to the whole of the SDA experience, this particular gentlemen was especially impressed that a black man could accomplish so much.
Now that Dr. Carson is running for president and drowning in his own lies, I don’t hear much about him anymore from that evangelist.
And while Dr. Carson might want to convince us that he’s not a politician, it really does seem he is. It was all of a month after the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast when Dr. Carson started running for president.
And the whole time, his fame was built on lies. That is to say, Dr. Ben Carson, the presidential contest’s paragon of Christendom, is a liar.
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Benen, Steve. “Ben Carson revels in GOP spotlight”. msnbc. 18 March 2013.
—————. “This Week in God”. msnbc. 9 February 2015.
Cheney, Kyle. “Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship”. Politico. 6 November 2015.
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