Ben Carson Owes No Apologies

Townhall.com ^ | February 18, 2013 | Star Parker

[Kaslin]

According to Cal Thomas, well-known nationally syndicated columnist, Dr. Ben Carson owes President Obama an apology.

Carson spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC this past week – a bi-partisan annual event held since 1953, attended by members of Congress and usually the President.

President and Mrs. Obama were present this year and Thomas feels that Dr. Carson was out of line for including in his remarks comments about areas considered public policy – our national debt, our tax system, our publics schools, and health care.

According to Thomas: “Our politics have become so polarized and corrupted that a president of the United States cannot even attend an event devoted to drawing people closer to God and bridge partisan and cultural divides without being lectured about his policies.”

Dr. Carson is an African American physician, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who rose out of poverty in a ghetto in Detroit. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2008 and is a role model for every American of every background.

I’m also proud that he serves on the national advisory board of my organization, CURE.

Although Carson did mention these various aspects of how we manage – or mismanage – our national affairs, he never once referred to the president or associated his comments on these issues with any political party.

To the extent to which President Obama might have taken Dr. Carson’s remarks as personal criticism, it would only be in the sense of “If the shoe fits, wear it.”

To the contrary, Dr. Carson began his remarks with citations from Proverbs and Chronicles, and tied the issues he spoke about to his broader theme about the moral crisis of our nation today. He talked about the moral decay of ancient Rome and how “they destroyed themselves from within.”

And he then expressed optimism about Americans being able to solve our problems because “we are smart” and that “we have some of the most intellectually gifted people leading our nation.”

No, if President Obama was offended by Dr. Carson’s penetrating remarks, it is because the president had to be the one losing perspective of the moral tone of the event and Dr. Carson’s observations.

What seems to offend Cal Thomas is that Dr. Carson has not fallen victim to the Washington disease that Thomas himself seems to have contracted as result of too many years in our nation’s capital.

Carson noted the vital importance of freedom of expression in America and how “political correctness keeps people from talking about important issues while the fabric of the society is being changed.” He warned that “we can’t fall for this trick.”

What, after all, is the point of a National Prayer Breakfast, “devoted to drawing people closer to God,” if the core issue now dividing us is whether we are indeed a “nation under God” and whether this means that His Word, as revealed in scripture, is even relevant to our national life and how we conduct our affairs.

This Word has already been banished from our public schools and increasingly from all our public spaces. Now apparently it’s even off limits at the National Prayer Breakfast.

If anything, Dr. Carson was forgiving to not mention the moral disaster of abortion legal under any circumstances and 55 million murdered unborn children -supported by our president. Nor did he mention our president’s endorsement of same sex marriage and today’s collapse of the American family.

The prophet Isaiah admonished, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord…..even when you make many prayers I will not hear: your hands are full of blood….cease to do evil, learn to do good…”

Religious ritual devoid of content is pointless and destructive. This was Isaiah’s message 2800 years ago.

This is Dr. Ben Carson’s critical message for America today. Certainly nothing to apologize about.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Words fail me. Thank you for the link.

[greene66]

Used to think Cal Thomas would not be one to go all wobbly, but when I saw him on FoxNews about three years ago, within a single appearance, when Palin was under a totally outlandish attack via a media smear, he reacted twice to her name with a facial expression of disgust, and took the side of the lying media! And then in the very same program, on another topic, went on to praise to the hilt some ridiculous big-government program/issue that Bush pushed through.

After that appearance, I pretty much wrote him off, ignoring anything and everything he had to say ever since.

[princess leah]

Dr. Carson brought up how lawyers are taught “to win” - so we ought to disqualify a nominee if they have ONLY been a lawyer or a politician...we need more hard working, honest and private enterprise nominees, just as we need a new breed of journalists who actually do background and investigative work, not opinion driven news!

[mrsmel]

But this is what the Left has made sure of, that any and all matters are immediately politicized, a strategy that dates all the way back to the early days of the commisar system under Lenin.

Exactly. It was the left which said, back in the Sixties, that everything is political, and then proceeded to take over every venue and politicise it. So Carson speaks some truths from the conservative side of the spectrum, and Thomas now decides that it's inappropriate to say something "political"? When the left has been doing just that, in every walk of life, for decades? Cal Thomas, where have you been all these years?

[Alberta's Child]

Personally, I think media pundits like Cal Thomas utterly resent the notion that someone like Dr. Carson with no background in politics or journalism can stand up and do a more effective job of communicating his views in 25 minutes than they’ve been able to do in their careers over the course of many decades.

[onedoug]

Not that hussein gives a damn,
but I'm glad someone finally took it to him.

[Kaslin]

Cal Thomas was wrong. However that is no reason for me to suddenly bash him and neither should you. After all he has the right to his opinion

[Kaslin]

Of course he had the right to say what he did and I am glad he did. On the other side Cal Thomas has the right to his opinion and that is no reason to suddenly start bashing him

[jsanders2001]

> Cal Thomas was wrong. However that is no reason for me to suddenly bash him and neither should you. After all he has the right to his opinion

Thomas wasn’t standing up for anyone out of the goodness of his heart. He was buying favoritism and grandstanding which I consider deplorable traits in context of the whole situation and his intent. Calling someone out for what they are is not bashing. PC’ers refer to it as bashing. I certainly don’t. Right is right; wrong is wrong.

[Elsie]

We are smart.

We buy things...

[Elsie]

On the other side Cal Thomas has the right to his opinion and that is no reason to suddenly start bashing him

True.

We need to stay on target and BASH Cal's MESSAGE; instead.

[Kaslin]

Sorry, but I stand by what to I said

[Rappini]

Not if I think he’s wrong.

[happyhomemaker]

I also believe that the black community needs to hear Dr Carson’s message. I come into contact with a lot of older female “head of household” Obama voters and they desperately cling to Obama because they are truly scared for their children and grandchildren and really believed that Obama was an answer to their prayers. I had a lot of anger against these voters after the election but I realize that they are scared to death. By sharing Dr Carson’s message they can really have something to cling to.

Cal is wrong. Dr Carson loves his neighbor more than his own comfort. He stepped up and shared the message God gave him for that time.

[rollo tomasi]

On the other side Cal Thomas has the right to his opinion and that is no reason to suddenly start bashing him

Lol,



So Carson bashes Cultural Marxism and rapacious politicians, Thomas bashes Carson for using the NPB as the platform (Proving Carson's point that DC is a playpen for Authoritarians who seek to squash objective truths by using a perverted notion that certain secular lairs should be immune from all truths), free republic posters bash Thomas for bashing Carson, and you bash free republic posters for bashing Thomas then say bashing should not apply to Thomas but he should freely bash Carson (Which you disingenuously say Thomas is wrong in an effort to claim some "I am above it all" attitude, thus seek the authority to call out bashers) and you should freely bash free republic posters who bash Thomas.

[Kaslin]

We need to stay on target and BASH Cal's MESSAGE; instead.

Exactly. Thank you

[MayflowerMadam]

“Cal Thomas is still more concerned with appearing above the fray than with saving the republic.”

He’s in that limbo place with Peggy Noonan, playing both ends against the middle to assure that they’ll be invited to the next big social shindig.

[Elsie]

Yea!!!!

We’re BACK!!