Ben Carson Defends His Religion While Possibly Trying To Distance Himself From The Details Of It

Ever since Donald Trump raised his eyebrow at Ben Carson’s choice of religion and Iowa embraced Carson, the brain surgeon has been defending his religion while seemingly distancing himself from it at the same time.

While Carson isn’t trying to be a politician in the traditional sense, he certainly seems to be picking up some habits from other professional politicians. Not wanting to associate himself too deeply with something that he is actually deeply rooted into, Ben Carson tried to tackle the topic of his membership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The Republican presidential candidate says that his personal relationship with God is “the most important aspect” of his life, but “it’s not really denomination specific.” In fact, Carson has tried his luck with Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran churches, but he returned to his Seventh-day Adventist roots when things just didn’t feel right, according to Christian Today.

Ben Carson said his departure from the Seventh-day Adventist church was due to those in attendance at the church, and not because of the principles of the denomination.

“I concluded it was the right church, just the wrong people. The church was very segregated. You know, if you have the love of God in your heart, it seems like you wouldn’t do that. That has changed fairly significantly since that time.”

Skeptics wonder how Ben Carson can harmonize the ideology of the Seventh-day Adventist church with the presidency if he should be elected. The Daily Beast describes the belief of many Seventh-day Adventists as “awkward” when it comes to supporting a member of their church for president.

Many Adventists believe the United States government will bring about the end of times when it joins forces with the Catholic Church and the Antichrist, also believed by some to be the pope, according to the Daily Beast. Some Adventists believe that Sunday-worshipers will rise up and try to strike down the Saturday-worshiping Adventists.

Ben Carson has not aligned himself with this belief, saying, “I think there’s a wide variety of interpretations of that. There’s a lot of persecution of Christians going on already in other parts of world. And some people assume that’s going to happen every place. I’m not sure that’s an appropriate assumption. If you look at what’s going on today with persecution of Christians, particularly in the Middle East, I believe that’s really more what’s being talked about.”

Ben Carson also says one of his best friends is Catholic and has been honored by several Catholic colleges.

Carson has also said he does not agree with his denomination’s decision not to ordain women.

It seems as though Ben Carson defends his religion while trying to distance himself from it at the same time. What he and Donald Trump have managed to do is to create some curiosity about the denomination, and the group has taken advantage of the interest by creating a website informing people what the Seventh-day Adventists are all about.

One Ohio pastor, Darrell Scott, urges evangelical Christians to take a better look at Ben Carson, according to PBS.

“If they’re crediting the rise in the polls to the evangelical community and are saying the evangelical community is embracing Carson then they need to re-examine their position, because he’s not a Christian in the evangelical sense of the word,” Scott said in an attempt to get more support for Trump.

Ben Carson says he is not surprised that people are coming after his faith, saying that others have called his faith “weird” because they do not understand it. He has also said that politics aren’t fair, and he’s ready for anything when it comes to the mud-slinging that occurs during campaigning.

[Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images News]