"... Carson is appealing to them with a divine mandate: God told him to run." Hey, Carson, your sky-fairy is full of hooey.

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COMMENTS: 
*  No politician should speak about God telling him to do things. Religion does NOT belong in a campaign. It belongs in churches homes and hearts - nowhere else.  The politicians who have dragged God into their campaigns are, without exception, people who want religion to take full participation in politics. The people on the religious right have never even HEARD of separation of church and state. That little item was deleted from Civics classes in the Bible Belt.  So their followers see nothing wrong with making the whole country adhere to THEIR religious attitudes. Republican politicians helped to make this happen, and are now trying to cash in on it politically.  The old "God told me to run" theme has been worn out by overuse. The overusers can thus avoid addressing the public about the ISSUES. But their followers, having been deprived of a decent education, aren't exactly analytical about politics. They go with the fanaticism, the hate, and the politicians who tell them what they WANT to hear.  Carson - and any politician falling back on the "God told me" theme should be disqualified from running for elected office.  The reason is that they have no respect for one of the foundation stones of our democracy: separation of church and state. They are trying to cheat to get votes.  People like this are despicable. Carson knows what separation of church and state IS, but opposes it, since he is utilizing religion to win an election.
*  Another fool that thinks God speaks to him directly. How deluded he is.
*  #$%$ religious lunatics. This guy needs to fade away and does all religion.
*  The thought of an American president speaking like a southern preacher to me every week makes me really depressed. I don't have a problem with religion but I really do believe in the separation of church and state. What religion is best? Do all other religions take a back seat?
*  Persecution is when you're beheaded for your beliefs, not when someone doesn't agree with you.
*  I don't see this the same way as Carson framed it. The quote he said was "and so many people now who are trying to push god out of our lives."  I see it completely different. There are a greater number of people trying to push their version of god/religion onto other's lives. The numbers aren't even close in this country. The religious wrong (they sure aren't right) wants people to believe they are some sort of persecuted minority which is complete hogwash. If you believe that atheists are the ones pushing their agenda more than religious people ask yourself when was the last time an atheist knocked on your door and tried to convince you to denounce your religion?
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At Liberty University, Carson frames his candidacy as spiritual battle
By Brandon Ambrosino, November 11, 2015

When Ben Carson took the stage Wednesday morning at Liberty University’s Vine Center, he claimed a role familiar to many of the conservative Christians in his audience — that of a believer persecuted for his faith. And on this Veterans Day, the GOP presidential frontrunner placed what he sees as a battle for the nation’s soul and values in the context of past military conflicts fought to protect the United States’ freedoms.

Praising the Allied soldiers who took part in the Normandy invasion, Carson asked rhetorically why they would do such a thing. “Not for themselves,” he answered, “but for you and me, so that we could be free.” He then shifted from 1944 France to 2015 America: “What are we willing to do for those who come behind us?”

“When you look at our founding document,” Carson told the students, faculty and staff gathered for Liberty’s required weekly convocation, “it talks about certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator – also known as God.” As the crowd applauded, he continued. “And we have so many people now who are trying to push God out of our lives.”

There’s no reason to be afraid, he said, quoting from the Book of Proverbs. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path.”

After the applause quieted, Carson said he held tight to that scripture in times of adversity. “I cling to it now when so many in the media want to bring me down because I represent something that they can’t stand.”

Carson has indeed come under questioning over discrepancies in his life story, as well as some unusual theories about the Holocaust and ancient Egypt. His response to criticism is a neat little rhetorical move often favored by politicians under scrutiny: “They hate me because I’m ‘x’” – where ‘x’ equals the figure’s audience and other supporters. The implication is that by defending Carson, conservative Christians defend themselves and their faith itself.

The promise of Carson’s favorite verse is similarly straightforward: Trust God, and He will direct every step of your life. Including, Carson believes, a presidential bid.

“When I got a call to be the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast for 2013, I said, ‘Lord, what are you up to?’” Carson said on Wednesday. He had already spoken at the event in 1997 and wasn’t aware that anyone had been given the honor twice. When Carson found out that the only other exception was Billy Graham, he “knew God was up to something.”

“What does the Lord want me to say?” he recalled asking himself, and right up until the eve of the breakfast, he had no idea. But when he awoke that morning, Carson said, it was immediately clear. His resulting speech was extremely critical of Barack Obama’s policies, including health-care reform, and it led conservatives to “clamber” for him to run for president.

So he prayed again. “And I said, ‘Lord, this was not on my bucket list, but if you truly want me to do this, all the pundits say it’s impossible, but nothing is impossible for you. If you open the doors, I will walk through them.”

“And he began opening doors.”

Carson isn’t the first politician to frame his aspirations in terms of a divine mandate. George Bush once reportedly referred to his belief that God speaks through him — the White House disputed the report, but it would not be unusual for an evangelical to pray that God would speak through him – and he was also quoted as saying he was “driven with a mission from God.”

White evangelicals remain an important bloc for presidential hopefuls — Bush won nearly four out of five of their votes in 2004 — which might explain why Carson is appealing to them with a divine mandate: God told him to run. And he’s framing it in culture-war terms that they understand. There is a war going on, and it’s time for responsible, concerned American citizens to intervene, motivated by their desire to leave a legacy of freedom to future generations. They can do this, Carson suggests, by voting for him. After all, he trusted God, and God directed his steps — steps that might lead to the White House.

Last week, the Guardian offered readers an inside look at Carson’s home with a spread of photos that included one of a telling portrait: Ben Carson, contentedly smiling in his white doctor’s coat, sitting literally at the right hand of Jesus, a biblical place of distinction.

“I think the one thing all of us love and appreciate about you, sir,” David Nasser, Liberty University’s vice president of spiritual development, told Carson at the end of his speech, “is really your humility. And the way that you carry yourself as a believer.”
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