According to Cal Thomas, well-known nationally syndicated columnist, Dr.
Benjamin Carson owes President Barack Obama an apology.
Carson spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., a bipartisan
annual event held since 1953, attended by members of Congress and usually the
president.
The president and Michelle Obama were present at the Feb. 7 event, and Thomas
wrote that Carson was out of line for including in his remarks comments about
public policy issues: 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."
Carson is an African-American physician, director of pediatric neurosurgery at
the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore; he rose out of poverty in a ghetto in
Detroit. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W.
Bush in 2008 and is a role model for every American of every background.
I'm proud that he serves on the national advisory board of my organization, CURE
-- the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a nonprofit based in Washington,
D.C.
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 Obama might have taken Carson's remarks as personal
criticism, it would only be in the sense of "if the shoe fits, wear it."
To the contrary, Carson began his remarks with citations from Proverbs and
Chronicles, tying the issues he spoke about to his broader theme of our nation's
moral crisis today. He talked about the moral decay of ancient Romans and how
"they destroyed themselves from within."
He then expressed optimism that Americans would be 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 Obama was offended by Carson's penetrating remarks, it was because the
president had to be the one losing perspective on the event's moral tone and
Carson's observations.
What seems to offend Thomas is that Carson has not fallen victim to the
Washington disease that Thomas himself seems to have contracted as a 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, Carson was forgiving to not mention our president's support of the
moral disaster of abortion, legal under any circumstances and responsible for a
reported 55 million murdered unborn children since the 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision. 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. "
(Isaiah 1:11, 15-17)
Religious ritual devoid of content is pointless and destructive. This was
Isaiah's message 2,800 years ago.
This is Dr. Ben Carson's critical message for America today. It's
certainly
nothing to apologize about!
Star Parker is
president of the Coalition for Urban Renewal & Education (CURE)
Her previous articles:
Being strangled by government |
Why are we discussing racism?
Who
is governing America?
| The
NAACP and abortion politics
Defining the liberal versus
conservative divide |
Two worldviews
The
Government Plantation Forever? |
Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation
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