October 26, 2015
Donald Trump went after Ben Carson for being a 7th-day Adventist. Here’s the backstory.
Janell Ross
| COMMENT: This is an inevitable treatment of Carson’s religious connections. Worth reading the entire article, (See link). |
UPDATE: Donald Trump, during a campaign appearance Saturday in Florida, sought to make an issue of Ben Carson's Seventh-day Adventist faith. "I'm Presbyterian," Trump said. "Boy, that's down the middle of the road folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about." In light of these comments, we are re-posting the below, which we first posted last month in light of Carson's comments opposing a Muslim president. Carson's church, as you'll see, has faced many questions in the past and has only pretty recently gained widespread acceptance.
On May 4, the day that retired and renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson — a lifelong member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church — declared himself a Republican candidate for the White House, the North American Division of Carson's church released a statement :
"The Adventist Church has a longstanding position of not supporting or opposing any candidate for elected office," it said. "The church has worked diligently to protect the religious rights of all people of faith, no matter what their denominational affiliation. ... We should therefore work to establish robust religious liberty for all and should not use our influence with political and civil leaders to either advance our faith or inhibit the faith of others."
Carson, it seems, decided to go a different direction. First, he said that he would not vote for or support the idea of a Muslim becoming president. Then, at the start of this week, Carson cited Sharia law and said that no practicing Muslim invested in the tenets of that faith could lead in a manner compatible with the Constitution — and that Americans understand and agree with him on this. A staffer then cut one such interview short.
But given the religious focus of Carson's recent comments, we think the question of Carson's own faith and its journey from a suspect denomination — once maligned as a cult — to part of the evangelical mainstream is also worthy of a little time. To be clear, none of what follows is an endorsement of religious views or criticisms. This is an overview of one denomination's long march toward broad acceptance with lots of links leading to more information. It's an effort to explore how Carson's faith has faced many of the same questions as Muslims, Mormons and, going back a little further, Catholics.
Click on Link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/30/ben-carson-opposed-to-a-muslim-president-practices-a-faith-that-has-faced-similar-suspicions/
