Ben Carson’s Violent History Ended As A Seventh-Day Adventist — Do Gun Control Beliefs Make Him Fake?

In a new interview, Ben Carson’s violent history has come to light based upon the admissions of the 2016 GOP candidate. The retired neurosurgeon is well known for separating conjoined twins, but when he was a teen he allegedly used those same hands for violence, including assault and stabbings.

Carson says those days are well behind him, but the source for this amazing change in the teenage Carson goes back to his beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. Some say those same beliefs conflict with Carson’s gun control stance, with some so going so far as to claim Carson is not an authentic Seventh-day Adventist.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, Donald Trump says he does not understand why Ben Carson’s poll numbers continue to rise, and Trump even referred to Carson’s energy levels as being “lower than Bush.” Trump even made a joke out of the situation, saying, “Donald Trump falls to second place behind Ben Carson. We informed Ben, but he was sleeping.”

During the Meet The Press interview, Chuck Todd asked Carson directly if people mistook his “soft-spokenness” with a lack of energy.

“I think so,” Carson replied. “I have plenty of energy. But, you know, I am soft-spoken. I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn’t always like that. There was a time when I was, you know, very volatile. But, you know, I changed.”

This is when Ben Carson’s violent history was discussed in very frank terms.

“As a teenager. I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers. And, of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone. And, you know, fortunately, you know, my life has been changed. And I’m a very different person now,” said Carson.

The discussion then quickly turned toward gun control, with Todd asking about Carson’s usage of Nazi metaphors related to the Jewish Holocaust. Todd asked, “So you believe if the Jewish citizenry were armed during the Holocaust, during the ’40s, that they would have been able to stop the Nazis?”

“I wrote about societies, before tyranny was able to take root, that the tyrants tried to rid the people of the mechanism to defend themselves. So it was said in that context. And I think it is generally agreed that it’s much more difficult to dominate people who are armed than people who are not armed,” Carson explained. “Well, my point being we should never compromise the Second Amendment. It’s therefore a very, very important reason. And Noah Webster said that America would never suffer under tyranny because if people were armed.”

In the past, some have suggested that Ben Carson’s gun control position conflicts with his professed beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist. The Christian denomination has a long history of being conscientious objectors to war and violence. In 1865, the Seventh-day Adventists proclaimed that Christians should have “nothing to do with carnal instruments of war.”

Due to this history, Seventh-day Adventists like Alexander Carpenter claim Carson “is not an authentic Adventist…The language of [Carson’s] support for guns is totally outside the rhetoric and beliefs of the Adventist church.” According to the Religion Dispatches, the progressive writer also says Carson’s statements that the “Holocaust occurred because Nazis would not allow Germans to carry guns” are “offensive” because they are “exactly opposed to Adventist teaching…your decision not to act [with violence] is where you have power.”

Carson has served as an elder in the Adventist church, but he also claims that the denomination, and its beliefs, are not the most important factor.

“I spend just as much time in non-Seventh-day Adventist churches because I’m not convinced that the denomination is the most important thing,” he said, according to Religion News. “I think it’s the relationship with God that’s most important.”

There is more to the story. Ben Carson’s violent past may have come to an end when he fully embraced Christianity, but some Seventh-day Adventist have also amended their stance on war and violence over time. During World War I, the Adventist reform movement declared, “war is no transgression of the sixth commandment, likewise, that war service on the Sabbath is not a transgression of the fourth commandment.”

What do you think about the debate over Ben Carson’s violent history and his stance on gun control laws?

[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]