Dr. Ben Carson revisited
Yesterday, Sunday, my family and I were watching a movie depicting the life of Dr. Ben Carson, the world-renowned brain surgeon. At the time when Dr. Carson was asked by his superior to push for the separation of Siamese twins joined at the head, he asked for more time.
What really struck me is the wisdom and the courage with which he approaches this very portentous decision. After all, everybody knew that, if he failed and one of the twins survived, he would have at least saved one life. But there was something else at work in the mind of this brilliant man. He knew because of his deep trust in God that, if it were God’s will, the Lord would empower him to do the impossible.
Ben Carson was waiting patiently and prayerfully for the Lord to give him the green light regardless of what others might think. He was no people pleaser! And when the right time came for him to act, the operation was successful.
Never was the divide between good and evil so visibly manifest. Here we have a man educated in the land of opportunities, where hard work and perseverance are rewarded. A land in which more people are blessed with access to the education and careers of their choice. The examples abound: indigents, Blacks, Latinos, immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds and nationalities, reaching the highest positions as CEOs, Supreme Court justice such as Justice Clarence Thomas, doctors such as Dr. Ben Carson, lawyers, and even a president – the long list shows the blessings that this country bestowed on its population when the people were faithful to our God and creator the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord…” (Psalm 33:12-22).
Do you ever wonder what kind of schizoid country this has become when you wake up in the morning? How is it possible to witness such a contrast between the miracle-working of the love and power of our God through the gifted hands of a brain surgeon, and the total disregard for life in its most vulnerable moments – as manifested in the abortion murder of growing millions of unborn, partially- or even out-of-the-womb babies? What is even more revolting is that a group of men and women whose life is dedicated to equal justice could grant a legal “Carte Blanche” encouraging doctors and women’s organizations to make huge profits from their trade.
The Bible talks about such divide in the following terms in Malachi 3:16-18:
“Then those who fear the Lord talked to each other, and the Lord listened and heard… A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. They will be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his own son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve the Lord and those who do not.”
At this point I would like to quote from an article written by Joseph Farah in World Net Daily; Roe v. Obama, Pelosi, Reid et al. Posted: March 29, 2010.
“Have you ever noticed the way certain people selectively apply what they claim as “constitutional rights”? This question occurred to me as I thought about the actions of the Congress and president last week. But, before I get to that, a little background is in order.
Back in 1973, a Supreme Court at the height of its activist history wrestled with a constitutional justification for allowing the indiscriminate slaughter of unborn babies in the infamous Roe v Wade case. “We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision,” Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in the majority decision.
Search the Constitution as you might for the word privacy or any synonym, and you will come up empty. But seven justices were determined to overturn duly enacted abortion laws throughout the United States, so they located this right in the due process clause. Ironically, it is the due process clause that forbids the taking of life, liberty or property without an impartial hearing. Yet, this decision ensured tens of millions of lives would be snuffed out with no due process. But the court found support for this “privacy” argument in the “penumbra” of the Bill of Rights.
In case you are unfamiliar with the term “penumbra,” perhaps a dictionary definition will help you:
- “The partial or imperfect shadow outside the complete shadow of an opaque body, as a planet, where the light from the source of illumination is only partly cut off.”
2. “The grayish marginal portion of a sunspot.”
3. “A shadowy, indefinite, or marginal area.”
Does that help?
In other words, the court understood it was dealing in the realm of shadowy, indefinite and marginal areas of the law – but it was still, on this admittedly shaky basis, willing to pronounce death sentences on millions.” (End of quote)
It is in fact so simple to see and show that this use of the gray area is a bogus argument that doesn’t hold water. And it really takes a spiritual blindness to not see the self-deceit from our elected representatives in the government and nominated officials who are supposed to protect the freedom and lives of all citizens, born or unborn, with making just and right decisions and application of the laws.
If we find ourselves in a gray area, to know our destination, it is a matter of knowing in which direction we are walking.
This is the course of action Dr. Carson recommends. I posted this commentary from WND, written by Star Parker in 2007 in which she quotes him as recommending the following:
“In his new book, Carson discusses his approach to dealing with risk, a core issue for exercising personal responsibility. He has a simple but effective approach that amounts to examining the best and worst outcomes that can result from a given course of action.
It is very clear. If you don’t know where to go, ask yourself if you are going towards the growing light or towards the growing darkness. Here is what God says in his Word:
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
Who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter…
Who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
But deny justice to the innocent” (Isaiah 5:20, 23).
“When the Lord stretches out his hand,
He who helps will stumble, he who is helped will fall;
Both will perish together” (Isaiah 31:3).
In Luke 6:39, “He (Lord Jesus) also spoke a parable to them: ‘A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?’”
I John 1:5-7 gives us the only solution when we have lost our way in the uneasy, undefinable, treacherous gray areas that relativists enjoy so much dwelling on. “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all… But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” (End of quote)
In His devotion on the subject of “Gray Areas,” Ray Stedman offers an insight on the impossibility of mixing Truth and lie according to 1 John 2:20-21: “You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I have not written you because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you have it, and because no lie comes from the truth.”
Have you learned yet that no lie is of the truth, that there is no possible harmony between a lie and the truth? In other words, that there are no gray areas in life; that a thing is either black (a lie) or it is white (the truth), and there are no gray areas, though there may be a mingling of black with white.
Every Christian has an ability to exercise moral judgment to distinguish right from wrong. It is amazing how many Christians have not learned this yet and still go on echoing the lie of the world, that there can be a blending of truth and error.
John utterly cuts the ground out from under that. I wrote to you, he says, because you have found this out, if you know Jesus Christ. You may not have thought through the implications, but you must know that there is no possibility of blending a lie with the truth.
One of the glorious things about God’s secret purpose, which is the restoring of the life of God to the spirit of man, is that it also reestablishes standards of absolute values and makes moral judgments possible. It shifts us from control by a conscience of convenience to control by a conscience of conviction.
These days, we are hearing much about situational ethics, relativism in the realm of moral judgments. What are these? If you cheat on an examination because you do not like the teacher, that is wrong. But if you do it because you are desperate to get a good grade and there is no other way to do it—you have been letting the whole thing slide until exam time and there is no other way but to cheat – then, that is right. (End of quote).
(My note: In 1966, the book Situation Ethics: The New Morality, by Joseph Fletcher was on my Psych. 101 required reading list.)
Interestingly enough, the commentary on the life of Dr. Ben Carson is the most sought-after article on my multi-lingual blog. It goes to show that people are still thirsty for truth and righteousness and searching for a few good examples to emulate. I hope that his words and deeds will not fall on deaf ears and will encourage our hearts to follow his leading example.
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