Dr. Ben Carson Archives - After the Altar Call

ben-carson

Hello World,

I have tried my best to not criticize Dr. Ben Carson because of his brilliance as a brain surgeon and his devout Christian faith. For years, he was heralded in the black community as an example of black history in our midst… I mean the man is the first doctor to have ever successfully separate conjoined twins! And the fact that he credits God for his abilities is just the message that is needed in America’s increasingly secular culture. But ever since this election cycle started a year or so ago, his statements have forced me to question his brilliance and his devout Christian faith. I won’t belabor you with all of the examples of his blunders. A quick Google search will prove my statement. But this latest one yesterday has got me wondering if the man doesn’t need to have a “little talk with Jesus” because he is sounding “insane in the membrane!”

In an interview with Brianna Keilar on CNN yesterday, Dr. Carson said that if Keilar had more exposure to “locker room talk” like Donald Trump’s rapey rhetoric as Dr. Carson apparently has, she would see that his comments weren’t all that. Watch the video below for yourself…

I guess Dr. Carson is one of the “The African-Americans” that Donald Trump frequently refers to in his speeches as Dr. Carson did, indeed, grow up in the inner city where all of “The African-Americans” live according to Donald Trump. Carson said, “As I was growing up, people were always trying to talk about their sexual conquests, and trying to make themselves appear, you know, like the Don, you know, Casanova.” And then he challenged her as a journalist to ignore those words and get back to covering the real issues of the campaign…

As a Christian and as a journalist/author, words are of the utmost importance…Below are just three Bible verses (and there are many more) that underscore the importance of words…

“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.” Matthew 15:18 ESV

“Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” Proverbs 13:3 ESV

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” Matthew 12:36 ESV

Now, I know that Donald Trump’s alleged ‘locker room talk’ is from 2005, but his words over the past year alone (Another Google moment …Here are three examples of searches – ‘Donald Trump Mexicans,’ Donald Trump tweets’ ‘Donald Trump Alicia Machado’ ) point to the heart of this man…And furthermore, Dr. Ben Carson, why do you believe that Donald Trump can be trusted to uphold the values of the Republican party or any values whatsoever when his actions and words demonstrate that he is willing to change his platform whenever it suits him …I mean he started off as Democrat for goodness sake and continues to evolve as the polls fluctuate…

If you want to vote for him, fine, but please don’t defend his words or encourage people to not consider his words because words (like black lives I might add) matter…

Any thoughts?

Hello World,

Remember when I noted on my About page “I typically blog on Sundays and Wednesdays (to coincide with Sunday Morning Church Service and Wednesday Night Bible Study), but sometimes I may post more or less depending on what is going on in my life… If God can be patient with me, I hope you can too?” Well, there you go… I did so much writing last month and the beginning of this month (various freelance projects), I was empty…all the water in my creative well had dried up and I was empty, chile…I felt drier than my dry dreadlocks but now, I’m feeling fuller again (plus my hair is did and moisturized as of yesterday LOL), and I feel like I can flow once again…(I tried to get started when I had a few drops of water down in me, but that proved to be too soon, but I’m back…I promise 🙂 )

So on Wednesday, when I heard the news that Harriet Tubman, a modern-day Moses for American black people as she led many slaves out of slavery, is going to be on the front of the $20 bill, my inner child did a Holy Ghost dance…

When I was a nine-year-old student at Pathway Christian School, my class dressed up as our favorite historical characters for “Character Day.” At that time in my life, I was obsessed with reading books about slaves. I think the fact that I was one of about 20 or so black kids in a school of about 200 or so white kids, I was starving for knowledge about black people.To my school’s credit, the library had a series of children’s books about slavery and important people during that time. One of the books I read was about Harriet Tubman. I was fascinated that this woman persevered after getting knocked in the head with a weight by a slave master and was willing to sacrifice so much to usher fellow slaves to freedom.

So when it came time to choose a character to be on “Character Day,” she was my choice. My parents helped me fashion my costume including a head wrap as Harriet’s head was covered in the pictures I had seen of her and a drab brown dress as I imagined that slaves did not have access to the best and most colorful of dresses. I was so excited when a local newspaper photographer took a picture of me and another student and told us we would be in the newspaper. But when I saw the photograph, I was equally disappointed. The other girl’s character in the photo was correctly identified as Betsy Ross, but I was simply and incorrectly listed as an African woman. I’ve kept that newspaper clipping since then. I’m not even sure why…But I wish I could tell that photographer that Harriet Tubman deserved to be recognized then… And now for generations to come, all Americans will recognize her whether they want to or not…

Not only was Harriet Tubman a hero for black people, she was a hero of the Christian faith which is why my spirit is grieved that Dr. Ben Carson, who is a devout Christian, attempted to downplay Harriet Tubman by suggesting that she should be honored on a $2 bill, which hardly one ever sees anymore?

How can a black Christian man fix his mouth to say such foolishness? But then again, after all of the foolishness that he let fly out of his mouth during and after his failed candidacy for president, I should be nan surprised…But you know what, Dr. Ben Carson, I hope when these new 20s come out, someone makes them rain on you….

I’m so glad that bumbling brain surgeon (how, Lord?) Ben Carson will not be our second black president, and I’m so grateful that our current first black president Barack Obama blessed us to make this new money happen…(Y’all know he had to have something to do with this…)

We may or may not see another black president during our lifetimes, but we at least we can pull some Harriets out of our wallets any time we please…

Thank you President Obama…I feel like going on…