By James Wilson
Dr.
Ben Carson has much to recommend him as a presidential prospect. A black man from the Detroit ghetto, he
overcame poverty and learning disability to become director of pediatric
neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. He electrifies
Americans with politically incorrect but compassion-laced addresses and books,
including the speech he delivered at 2013’s National Prayer Breakfast while
standing a few feet from another black leader – Barack Obama – whose positions
are diametrically opposed to those held by Carson.
He quotes
himself in his book, One Nation, “The future of my grandchildren and everyone
else’s is put in jeopardy by a continuation of reckless spending, godless
government, and mean spirited attempts to silence critics…” Mocked by critics as unintelligent because he
calls evolution a faith, it occurs to this writer that if a neurosurgeon
believes in divine creation it might be worth considering as science. Aside from his obvious brilliance – he
pioneered several lifesaving neuro-surgical techniques – he demonstrates
courage, compassion, and abiding faith in God.
He is currently the only credible (possible) candidate for leadership of
the nation to be so straightforward on the polarizing questions of our
time. But he is not ready for prime
time.
Axiomatic
for Carson is his conviction that if liberals and conservatives would only dial
back the flaming rhetoric and actually converse they would see they have common
goals and discover common ways to achieve them.
This is true in principle and just as axiomatic for an ambassador of
reconciliation like myself. But equally
realistic factors like self-righteousness, intellectual laziness, and that old
lust for power can block that mutual goodwill which is pre-requisite for
authentic reconciliation.
Theoretically it
should be doable to negotiate a healthcare reform plan that actually addresses
the abuses of insurance companies in bed with malpractice attorneys in bed with
pharmaceutical companies in bed with medical technology concerns and recover a
reasonably priced way to deliver healthcare.
It is called competition and it requires consumers to cross state lines
to buy coverage they both want and need – and not be forced to purchase what
they don’t. Tom Price, doctor and
congressman from Georgia, made a good try at this, but his plan was never
seriously discussed because the power brokers of Obamacare were too busy
ingratiating themselves with the very industries they were supposed to be reining
in to do their homework or engage rational discussion. Throw in the ideologues who desire power for
its own sake and the prospects are grim at best. Dr. Carson decries this status quo, but he
does not seem to recognize the motivations.
The contending parties understand the situation perfectly, and they
accept it because it works for them.
In one
discussion of gay marriage as a dividing issue he endorses civil unions as an
alternative to actual marriage for gays.
He believes this will give traditional marriage advocates the boundary
they seek while permitting gays to make the alternative arrangements they
seek. Yet he speaks in a book published
in 2014. There is virtually no place in 2014
America where civil unions are not available.
Unions are not what gays want.
And study after study – conducted in nations that have had gay marriage
for years – document twin disasters for the practice. Gay marriages rarely succeed. Straight marriages suffer in their wake. It is not about what we want to believe. It is about ways in which human beings are
hardwired whether we believe it or not.
And Carson is not being unintelligent here, but he is hopelessly naïve
for a man who would lead a nation.
Carson has the
courage to come out squarely for life at conception, traditional marriage, and
a world created to reflect its creator.
He is proud to stand in deference to a Lord who trumpets these values in
His Holy Word. He rejects the “false
unity of political correctness and submission,” to a secular power structure
serving only itself. He has faithfulness
to hold for a “true unity that comes with liberty, justice, and (personal)
responsibility.” He has wisdom to see a
world in which everybody can win if we actually seek authentic and reality-based
reconciliation and enough realism to see “this unity doesn’t succeed without
some conflict.” He calls ordinary
Americans to accept personal responsibility for it.
His naivete
manifests in his failure to realize the leaders of both major parties and most
major interest groups do not want this world he envisions. The one we have suits them fine. Ordinary Americans have not yet accepted
their responsibilities under God. And
Dr. Carson stands as a beacon of decency who is really not ready for prime
time. Not yet, anyway.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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