Rick Green

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It's WallBuilders, where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton, and we got Ben Carson coming on, guys. really cool. Looking forward to this.

Tim Barton

This is super exciting and for those that might not know

Rick Green

Because they're living on a rock somewhere. They don't know who Ben Carson is right.

Tim Barton

But you know in fairness, there's people if you've only known Ben Carson because of the Trump administration. There's a lot of an amazing story that you've been missing out on. And growing up back 80s, 90s, we had to do a lot of book reports and for our families we were traveling in our van and our van schooling, before it was really homeschooling and before that became a very cool and trendy thing that it's becoming these days. One of the books that I remember we had to read was a book called Gifted Hands and it was about this Christian doctor, the first one to ever successfully separate Siamese twins conjoined at the head, like sharing a brain, and this guy, neuro brain surgeon, goes in and he is able to take this brain that's conjoined and just piece by piece, take it a part of the story testimony is he would go in and he'd spend a couple hours doing it and he'd go I don't know if I can do it anymore he might take a break somewhere and as he was taking a break, just thinking, maybe praying and going, I don't know what to do. And then he'd have an idea of, oh, wait a second, what if I try this? And he'd go back in and he would try that and it would work. And he would go for another hour or two and he would take a break and he would go out and think, man, I don't know what to do. And God kept leading him this whole time. He was able to separate this brain like unbelievable, amazing fashion. Well, how did this guy come to be the most successful, One of the right? Really should be one of the most revered brain surgeons, neurosurgeons ever?

Well, he started off in a home with a single mom who was a high school dropout, who gets pregnant super early in life, and his mom cannot read or write to speak of, really. I mean, maybe knows a little, but really can't, can't do much reading or writing there as a family grown up on the projects, and he's Ben Carson has another brother and every night they would talk about that have mattresses that were below the window because they were shooting. He's in all kinds of violence and mom decides that she doesn't want her boys to grow up where they're going to join one of these gangs and end up dying one day in the gang. How can I get my boys out of here? She decided education is the way she starts taking over the public library. They have to get a book. She makes them do a book report like every week, has to turn it into her, and they start doing this. And there comes a time, like after third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, that Ben Carson's in sixth, seventh, eighth grade, somewhere along those lines, and his mom was every week she'd give him grades and give these papers back and he realized like his mom was circling or underlining words that he knew he spelled correctly, he knew he had structured the sentence correctly and he went to his mom, was like mom, this is correct. And she finally acknowledged she's like okay, I don't really know how to read, I don't know what these words are. I just, I just knew you could do better and so I always would just underline and circle words and tell you to do better and that's what I wanted you to do.

Well, he goes on to become one of the highest performing academic students, gets scholarships to attend these private schools and then a scholarship to college and scholarship to med school. His brother ends up being an actual rocket scientist, just this amazing testimony in an incredible Christian testimony. And certainly he was part of the Trump administration, did a lot of significant things there at HUD, but this guy's faith journey is one of inspiration, should be inspiring more Americans. He's written so many incredible books and it's an honor and pleasure to have him on the program today.

Rick Green

I think, tim, you're confused. I think you're actually thinking of Cuba Gooding Jr. Oh, no wait, that's who played him in the movie. That's right, never mind, sorry. Could you imagine if Cuba Gooding Jr played you in a movie. I mean, how cool. That in and of itself is awesome. Listen, this is gonna be great. Ben Carson, our special guest today, and, of course, as you said, Tim served in the Trump administration. A lot of people talking about him as a possible VP as well, but just a great American, incredible, incredible life story and we're excited to have him great new book coming out and really talking about the, the real cause of America's problems right now and, of course, the solution getting back to those biblical values. Stay with us, folks, Ben Carson, our special guest, when we return.

Tim Barton

Hey guys, it's Tim Barton and I want to let you know about an opportunity coming up for pastors and ministry leaders. We are doing our annual pastors briefing in Washington DC and we do this every year. We do one in the spring, we do one of the fall. This spring it's April 16th and 17th. This fall it is September 10th and 11th. This is one of the most significant things we do to encourage and challenge pastors in this culture we live in.

It's in Washington DC and Tuesday night we do an after hours tour of the US Capitol where we introduce pastors and ministry leaders to the history of the nation. The following day we have congressmen come and and they give a briefing on what they're doing and how God is Challenging and motivating and using them and and, frankly, most pastors, most ministry leaders, they don't know the rich spiritual hairs of the nation or what God is still doing, moving in the hearts and lives of leaders in this nation. I would encourage you if you're a pastor, ministry leader, you need to come to this. It's one of the best things we do at WallBuilders to find out more. Go to wallbuilders.calm and look for the pastors briefing.

Rick Green

Well, come back. Thanks for staying with us here on wall builders. Great to have Dr. Ben Carson with us. Former secretary of HUD. Thanks so much for coming on, sir.

Dr. Ben Carson

Well, I'm delighted to be with you and thanks for being a patriot.

Rick Green

All right. New book, the Perilous Fight. I mean, you know as good as anybody because you've been inside the belly of the beast in Washington DC and you're loved all across America and people are looking for answers. So you're the perfect voice to bring this message about restoring the family and restoring the country. Perilous Fight coming out in just a few weeks and you hit the core, man. You're saying so many things that we believe. Here are the causes for America crumbling and then, of course, the formula for picking up the pieces and rebuilding. So thanks for doing the book. What's the most important thing you want people to take away from it?

Dr. Ben Carson

Well, thank you. You know America was born in a crucible of controversy and conflict. You know we didn't become a free country easily and it took a lot of fighting. And you know, when Benjamin Franklin came out of the Constitution Hall in 1787 after a very ruckus session, he was asked sir, what do we have here, a monarchy or a republic? He said a republic, if you can keep it. Well, we're in a major fight now to see if in fact we can keep it. We've kept it for over 240 years, but the things that face us now are horrendous. We can't be overcome from outside. We don't have to worry about being overwhelmed by Russia or China or North Korea or Iran, but we can be destroyed from inside.

And how do you do that? You look at the foundation of the nation, and that foundation is our families and our faith, and those are the things that are being attacked. And some people think it's of recent origin. It's really not of recent origin. It's been going on for a very long time. If you go back and you look at the congressional record January the 10th 1963, congressman Herlong from Florida read into the congressional record the 45 goals of Communism in America and you see the very things that are happening, many of them to our families the emphasis on getting rid of God and replacing our faiths and God with faith and government. Driving wedges between children and parents. Empowering the educational system to be the one that provides the values and not the families. I mean taking over the media that was a big one and Hollywood, so that you could indoctrinate the people.

Rick Green

The major influence centers I mean, then you're the voice in their lives, more so than the church or the family. If you can control those influence centers

Dr. Ben Carson

If you can control those influence centers and you can see how Hollywood sort of ridicules the traditional family and the role of fathers, makes the mothers into superheroes, and then how we've made divorce so easy and one of the reasons that people are not being committed to each other and people are not getting married anymore, which means not producing children. All of these things are having a very negative impact on our country and it's intentional, and we're being manipulated, and what I wanted to do is make sure that people understand what's going on. They don't understand that they're being pawns and they're being played, and all of this is for a very nefarious purpose, and it was Vladimir Lenin who coined the term, “Useful idiots” basically get people to destroy themselves happily, without realizing what's going on 

Rick Green

Man, so many things there to unpack the foundation you talked about with family and faith and, of course, the scripture. The foundations be destroyed. What can the righteous do and that's certainly what they've attempted to do, as you said, not just recently. I mean, they've been scratching and clawing in the trenches for probably 80 years to try to turn this nation into something that was never intended to be, and what you just said is where they've attacked. How do you rebuild the family? Because it has been replaced so much by government. People look to government for all the solutions, or they're even told these are our kids. How do you turn that around?

Dr. Ben Carson

Well the reason that they're able to do all of these things is because, even though most Americans would disagree with what they're doing, people won't stand up for what they believe in. They'd rather stand in the corners and stare at the floor and hope that no one caused them a nasty name.

Rick Green

Lack of courage, then,

Dr. Ben Carson

 Or tries to cancel them. But you can't really be the land of the free if you're not the home of the brave. We wouldn't have the freedoms that we have today if there hadn't been people who preceded us who were willing to put everything on the line to make sure that we retain their freedom. People have to get involved. Parents have to go to the school board meetings. They have to run for the school board. They have to get involved with the city council. They have to run for these seats.

People have to know who they're voting for. This is a big one, because our forefathers understood that this day would come. That's why Benjamin Franklin said “if you could keep it.” But that's why they put the power in the hands of the people through the ability to vote. We have a democratic republic for that reason. But if you don't use that vote appropriately, you've got a real problem. And a lot of people don't. When they go to vote, they just look for the name that looks familiar. It could be Satan. Oh yeah, I know that one. Okay, and that's the one they vote for..

Rick Green

They practically are voting for that sometimes, or at least as minions.

You're hitting on a really important thing that's missing, that we have to restore to the family, and that's courage.

Ben Carson

Right.

Rick Green

Just the ability to do this. In fact, you quoted Franklin on a republic, if you can keep it we don't know for sure if it was Franklin, but he was part of it in 1755, that letter to the colonial governor If you give up your liberty for safety, you deserve neither liberty or safety. And it's exactly what you're saying. People just play it safe. They don't use their freedom. We need to fuse some backbone back into the culture, which is really what you're saying. This perilous fight that's right before us is going to require courage.

Dr. Ben Carson

Everybody can get involved. We're told from the time that you're a child. There are two things that you should never talk about religion and politics. Those are the exact things we need to be talking about because those are the things that are under attack, that are being changed, and they would much rather you not talk about them, sort of like that.

Rick Green

Let's talk some religion. You say there are some biblical principles that are needed to do this. What are those biblical values that you think need to be reignited in the culture?

Dr. Ben Carson

Well, for instance, proverbs 22:6 says train up a child in the way you should go, and when he's old he'll not depart from it. That is such an important part of this battle because the Marxists understand it, and that's why I then said give me your children to teach for four years and the seed that I sow will never be uprooted. That's why they're so anxious to get in our schools. And we have to understand what the stakes are here.

The human brain is an amazing organ system billions of neurons, hundreds of billions of connections. It remembers everything you've ever seen, can process more than two million bits of information in one second. But it takes a while for it to develop, even though millions of neurons are being added every day after conception, even at the time of birth, millions of neurons are being added. That's why a newborn baby sleeps for 20 to 22 hours and that continues right up until your 20s, your mid to late 20s. Your brain is developing. So when you take children who have developing brains, who are naturally curious and who are very suggestible and they're only 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old, and you're saying you may not actually be a girl, you may not actually be a boy, and their suggestibility and curiosity. That's really child abuse, what you're doing to them.

That's why God gave children parents to protect them from those kinds of things. That's what we need to be concentrating on. We need to also be talking about marriage and what it really means, as opposed to letting it be defined by Hollywood, particularly in the beginning it's not always a bed of roses. It's like taking two pieces of sandpaper and putting together. There's a lot of friction at the beginning, but if you keep rubbing those sandpapers together, what happens? They become smooth. You don't go to hang in there until you figure each other out.

Rick Green

That's right. That's right. My daughter-in-law was just telling us the other night. We were sitting around talking about this and she said the whole thing about a city on a hill can't be hidden. But she said if all the lights in the homes are out, it is hidden. You don't see it. We've got to reignite that fight. She was just acknowledging she and my son are about to have their first baby and she was just saying the most important thing I'll ever do is raise this child to be a patriot, to be a Christian, to be someone that'll be a good influence out there for all of us, reminding ourselves that whatever happens in the White House or the State House is not as important as what happens in our house, and getting back to loving the idea of what you just talked about protecting that child raising that child.

That should be a passion for all of us again, so that we can pass the torch.

Dr. Ben Carson

One of the things that we emphasize in the book is we give you a lot of statistics, numbers about what happens to a child who is in a traditional nuclear family, with a mother and a father who cares for them, versus a child who is not in that environment. And the statistics don't lie, and these are gathered from conservative and non-conservative sources. They all point in the same direction. So I think a lot of the people on the left who are pushing non-traditional families and radical sexual agendas and things like this they actually know what the stats are, but they're pushing these agendas anyway for short-term gain, without really thinking about what their long-term implications are.

Rick Green

Yeah, no doubt. How do you get parents to realize the dangers that are out there? Because that was one of the things my daughter-in-law was saying. She was like I don't understand how anybody doesn't know this stuff is happening and they're still willing to send their kids off to a school or whatever that's propagating this stuff. And I said, well, there are echo chambers out there where people don't realize the dangers of what's happening and, like you're saying, the suggestibility of that child at eight, nine, 10 years old. And I think you do that in the book. You're kind of, you're waking people up to realize you've got to realize how serious this is and why you have to pay attention to it.

Dr. Ben Carson

Well, I'm hoping that people who read the book will not just read it and put it on their shell, but they'll start talking to people in their sphere of influence. We who are on the side of logic and common sense, who want to preserve America, who appreciate the blessings of this country, have to be willing to get into the fight. I mean, you can't just sit in the corner, play golf, watch the football game, think about your next vacation, man. You don't have to exclude all those things, but add to it getting involved in a fight.

Rick Green

I don't know, man, I think you do have to exclude, so I think you got to start giving up. Maybe it's golf, maybe whatever. Look for something to sacrifice and say I'm going to take that time and do a Constitution Class, or take your book and do a book reading with people in the church. I think we do have to start thinking it's time to sacrifice lives fortunes sacred honor. We're losing this thing.

Dr. Ben Carson

Well, you know that's true, because you know I worked very hard as a pediatric neurosurgeon, that thousands upon thousands of cases, and one of the things that kept me going is I said I'm going to be able to retire. I'm going to be able to relax and really become a good golf player and learn how to play the piano and travel to all the places I have been and read the books I haven't read and see the movies that I never saw. But you know, seeing the direction of the country, I couldn't do it. I finally concluded that I'll retire when I get to heaven. 

Rick Green

Amen, I like that plan. I like that plan. You have so much to offer. We need you to your six feet under, or your body six feet under, and you're in heaven. And I think that's the way we got approached. I remember Thomas Paine had a I can't remember exactly, I can't remember what part of American Crisis he said it in, but he was talking about how a Tory was standing in this tavern that he was in and the guy said something to the effect of as long as I have peace in my day. And so Thomas Paine was, like you know, basically said in my jargon he said what a jerk. You know, how could you possibly say that you'd rather your kid have to fight the battle than you? A real man would say I'll fight until I'm dead, till I'm long gone, so that my kids can live in peace. That's what I just heard you say is I'm willing to do whatever it takes for the rest of my life so that we can preserve this freedom and pass it on.

Dr. Ben Carson

And when you think about you, think about what happened in our past, you think about something like World War II, all those women, those young women who went into the munitions factories, many of whom were blown to smithereens, but that didn't stop them from producing all the things that we needed for the war. And think about the young men 16, 17, 18, 19 years old, many who lied about their age so they could fight for our country. Think about D-Day, all of those dead bodies laying in the sand and them stepping over the dead bodies and overwhelming the Axis forces, knowing in many cases, that they'd never see their homeland or their loved ones again. Why did they do that? Obviously not for themselves. They did it for us. We have to think about that. Now it's our turn.

Rick Green

So true, it's our turn, oh, it's our job, to stand guard at the Watchtower Freedom. Dr Ben Carson what a treat. Really appreciate him coming on and being a part of WallBuilders today. Check out his book the Perilous Fight: Overcoming Our Culture’s War on the American Family. You've got a role to play in that. Folks Stay with us. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. Here's a look at the story of the American history.

Tim Barton

Hey guys, it's Tim Barton and I want to tell you about our new book, The American Story Building the Republic. We start with George Washington as president and we've already become a nation. So really now it's how do we function as a nation? And if we look back in American history, the stability, the prosperity, success we enjoyed as Americans is because of the foundation that our early presidents laid, because of the examples they set. How do we live in America under the Constitution? What is the role of federal government? And really, what part did each one of these early presidents play? We go to the first seven presidents and a lot of people probably know the names Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison. Very few people know about Monroe or John Quincy Adams or Andrew Jackson. Now, we might know some of their names, we really don't know their stories. We want you to relearn, rediscover American history and see how it applies to today. Go to wallbuilders.com and get your copy of the American story building the Republic. 

Rick Green

We're back on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Ben Carson for joining us. What a great guy, guys. That's the first time we've had him on the program. That was fun, 

David Barton

Yeah it was, and, as Tim said at the beginning, what an amazing guy and you listen to him. He's really humble and he's self-spoken.

He's such a nice guy and we've seen him do so many good things, but he has such a backbone, such perseverance. When he was in the administration he was a great guy and he was a great guy and he was a great guy and he was a great guy and he was such perseverance when he was in the administration. He did not put up with people doing the wrong stuff. So he's a really good guy and he really has some things. Rick, you and he were talking there at the end on several things that really kind of struck me. It reminded me of some founding fathers statements and it was like listening to founding fathers talk. And one of the things he talked about is that we have we really have inside enemies that are more dangerous than outside enemies he's talking about people disagree with what's going on, but a lot of people they just don't want to stand up to what's happening, so they disagree with it but they don't stand up to it, and that kind of courage, that kind of or lack of courage. I was reminded. Here's a great quote from John Dickinson signer of the Constitution. He says “slavery is ever preceded by sleep. Let us take care of our rights and therein we take care of our posterity.” So if you refuse to go to sleep, if you will fight for your rights, then you're protecting future generations. I thought that was a really good point, that a lot of people disagree with what's going on but they just won't engage. They don't want to stand up for it, they don't want to yell that, etc. And then you guys were talking later about you know, rest, we'll rest later. We've got too much to do right now.

And I was really reminded of something that Benjamin Rush said. Benjamin Rush said remember my he was writing to a friend. He said remember my dear friend, that no one lives to himself, which is a quote from Romans 14-7. He said even our old age is not our own property. All the fruits of our age and wisdom and experience belong to the public. He said to do good is the business of life. To enjoy rest is the happiness of heaven. We pluck for premature fruit. When we grasp it rest on the side of the grave. So it's like I'm going to burn myself out. I'm not going to rest. There's too much to do. I get to rest in heaven. God didn't put me here to rest. God put me here to do stuff. And that went back to something he learned from his actually Press and University of Princeton back then was a guy named Samuel Finley, reverend Samuel Finley. When Benjamin Rush went there and he said he'd learned from Finley, he said Dr Finley one time said I'm ashamed to take rest here. He said eternity will be long enough to rest. He said the prayer of my heart is that I may be actuated by the same spirit which dictated those noble Christian sentiments. So again, I've got all of eternity to rest. I'm not resting here and I think that is the one thing that will turn America faster than anything else right now.

Because I agree with Dr Carson you, there's a whole lot of people out there who know this stuff is wrong. They're just not standing up for it. They don't want to get involved in the controversy, they want to kind of sit back and let it pass. You can't do that. You can't rest here and you can't sit back here. That happens in heaven. You got to get engaged here and just boy, what an honor to have Dr Carson on to talk about this and you know it was interesting. Even with all that we've talked about him, he didn't mention anything political at all. This was just stuff about saving the country. And there he is, people are looking at him for VP and he's on the VP list, but that wasn't what he wanted to talk about. He wanted to talk about saving the country and what we can do to do that, and these are perilous times. So, bless his heart, he's got a really good book out there.

Rick Green

Well, I want to godly example man. I just love his humility and just so much wisdom there. It's a great example of what we should all strive to be and thankful that God's continuing to use him. Great book folks. You need to check it out and of course, we'll have links today at wallbuilders.com so it'll make it easy for you to get over there. Good stuff. Thanks to Ben Carson for joining us today. Thank you for listening. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show