|
 “He seems like a completely different Ben Carson,” Bullock said.
Carson “was a superstar” when Bullock was growing up, he said. He
and his classmates made Carson the subject of Black History Month
projects that celebrated Carson’s rise from the same gritty Detroit
streets where they lived to become one of the nation’s leading
neurosurgeons in the 1980s.
African-American churches have a complicated relationship with
Carson. They took a special interest in him, supporting his
autobiography “Gifted Hands” and staging reenactments of his
inspirational life story - contributing to his celebrity before he
ever decided to enter the political arena.
As a presidential candidate, however, Carson, a Seventh Day
Adventist, has alarmed many in the black church with his incendiary
remarks about guns, Muslims, and another hero, President Barack
Obama. To some of those who grew up in the church idolizing him, the
Carson who has emerged in the presidential race is a far diminished
figure.
His failure to capitalize on his longstanding relationship with
African-American church leaders has potentially robbed Carson, who
is sinking in national opinion polls, of a potential base of support
in the runup to early nominating contests and, should he become the
Republican nominee, the November 2016 election.
Rev. Delman Coates, a pastor in Clinton, Maryland, said
African-American churches have always had a special connection to
Carson, who has credited much of his professional success to his
Christian faith.
In the past, Coates said he has used lessons from Carson’s life in
his own sermons. But now, Coates said, Carson’s politics and some of
his views have “tainted some of that reputation.”
Indeed, polls show that Carson’s political ascent largely has been
fueled by the support of white evangelicals, not African-American
churchgoers, who historically align with the Democratic Party. That
has made Carson at times an estranged figure from the men and women
who grew up idolizing him.
“I would not call him an African-American leader," said Coates, who
was particularly bothered by Carson's suggestion that Muslims should
be barred from seeking the presidency. "There’s a difference between
being an African-American voice and being a voice of
African-Americans.”
"LORD, YOU BE THE NEUROSURGEON"
Long before he entered political life, Carson raised his profile by
speaking at churches and telling his story. His address at a Miami
church in 2011 was emblematic of his message.
Talking about his success as one of the nation's foremost pediatric
neurosurgeon, Carson sermonized, "I realized it wasn't me after all.
It was the Lord. That's when I said, 'Lord, you be the neurosurgeon,
I'll be the hands.'"
For Carson, trying to convince black pastors and their congregants
that his values line up with theirs remains a significant challenge,
even though African-American voters tend to have more conservative
views on issues such as gay marriage and abortion than their white
counterparts.
In theory, states such as South Carolina and Michigan, which have
so-called “open” primaries, black voters could cross party lines and
vote for Carson without having to register as Republicans, a
potentially hidden wellspring of support if he can tap into it.
 Armstrong Williams, a top advisor to Carson, conceded that the
candidate has, at times, alienated some African-Americans with his
rhetoric.
"There are things that Dr. Carson has said in the past - equating
Obamacare to slavery has not gone over well in that community," he
said in an interview. But now "he’s learned how to better
communicate, better to speak the language and say it in a way that
is not offensive."
[to top of second column] |
Black churchgoers will be willing to listen to Carson because of
their shared history, Williams said. "They’re willing to give him a
second chance and a third time."
Carson held a press conference in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on
Wednesday where he was endorsed by 20 national and local pastors,
nearly half of whom were ministers of African-American churches.
At the press conference, Bishop Ron Thomas, a black pastor at
Reconciliation Apostolic Ministries in Las Vegas, Nevada, said he
was backing Carson out of worry “that our country is really losing
touch with God.”
But Thomas may be the exception. The more typical response to
Carson’s candidacy is that of Detroit’s Jacqueline Galloway-Blake,
who met Carson more than 20 years ago when he came to address her
church in Inkster, Michigan.
“I was in awe of him,” she said.
She doesn’t feel that way now. When he likened Obamacare to slavery,
Galloway-Blake said she was horrified. “It’s disturbing to hear
him,” she said.
STRUGGLE TO RECONCILE
In Detroit and elsewhere, prominent African-American church leaders
struggle to reconcile Carson the legend with Carson the politician,
whose verbal missteps on the campaign trail have been well
documented.
Bishop Charles Ellis, who oversees the massive 4,000-seat Greater
Grace Temple in Detroit, was quick to praise Carson’s influence on a
generation of African-American doctors. The Sunday School at Greater
Grace once staged a reenactment of Carson's life story.
But in his next breath, Ellis, a supporter of Democratic
presidential contender Hillary Clinton, compared Carson to 2008
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who was
lampooned for some of her statements.
“I also can understand how you can be very intelligent and very
knowledgeable in one area, and be totally ignorant in another arena
or area of life," Ellis said. “Politics is not for everybody.”
Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the Washington-based National Black
Church Initiative, an African-American advocacy group, described
Carson as having two personalities, that of the gentle physician and
the second, a hyper-conservative political novice. He criticized
Carson for being too passive on the issue of tensions between
African-Americans and urban police departments.
For Carson’s supporters in the African-American faith community,
it’s made for an uphill battle.
Rev. Altheresa Howard, a pastor of a church in Lancaster, South
Carolina, has been trying to recruit other black ministers to back
Carson, including several who attended Carson’s press conference.
Still, she added, “We still have a lot of work to do.”
(Reporting by Alana Wise and James Oliphant, editing by Ross Colvin)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
