‘It wasn’t me, it was God’: Dr. Ben Carson reflects on Christian faith, impossible brain surgeries, parenting and politics at Herzog Foundation event

The most honest American presidential candidate of all time may also have been the most reluctant. But it was the former brain surgeon’s Christian convictions and love for America that drove him then and compels him now.

“I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what people think,” Dr. Ben Carson told a rapt audience on Tuesday at the Smithville, Missouri, headquarters of the Herzog Foundation, which publishes The Lion. “I care what God thinks, and that’s the most important thing.”

Indeed, what God thinks and what the Bible says weave in and out of Carson’s life story, from a challenging childhood led by his single, hardworking Christian mother, to unexplainably miraculous pediatric brain surgeries, to being a frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race.

A foundation of faith 

“(My mother) had so much faith in God,” Carson said, explaining why she was his spiritual mentor. “No matter what the problem was, no matter what was going on, she would say, ‘God can handle this. God will handle this.’ And she was a real believer. And, you know, she had a difficult life.” 

Faith in God became the bedrock of her son’s life, too, especially at a pivotal moment at age 14, when Carson says he had his “last angry outburst.” 

“I had a razor temper when I was young. I got into a lot of trouble,” he admitted, recounting times he hurt other kids, tried to hit his mom with a hammer, and at 14, tried to stab another teen in the stomach. 

“I was an ‘A’ student on my way to becoming a doctor, but I realized I would never be a doctor with a temper like that, that my choices would be jail, reform school or the grave. None of those appealed to me, so I just prayed. I said, ‘Lord, you’ve got to help me somehow, because I can’t control my temper.’  

“There was a Bible. I picked it up. There were all these verses about anger, like Proverbs 19:19: ‘No use getting an angry man out of trouble because he’s just going to get right back into it.’ … And then there were all these verses about fools. Seemed like they were all written about me. And verse after verse, chapter after chapter, and prayer after prayer. … And I came to the understanding that if I could just take myself out of the center of the equation and let it be about somebody else that would not be a problem anymore. And it wasn’t; that was my last angry outburst.”

God in the operating room 

Carson’s newfound calmness and deepening Christian faith would serve him well as a pediatric neurosurgeon, who once faced a seemingly impossible moment during a brain operation to separate conjoined twins. 

“I learned early in my career that it wasn’t me, that it was God, and I would pray before every surgery for His special guidance, direction and particularly difficult situations,” he said. “There was one case. It was a case of conjoined twins. We had reached a point where things looked so difficult, they looked impossible: blood vessels crisscrossing between the two. … 

“I really felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. I went back in there with a prayer on my lips and started operating, and for the next several hours, I honestly do not remember what I did, but when I made the final cut that separated those twins, over the stereo system came the Hallelujah chorus. Everybody had goose bumps. And when we finished the operation after 28 hours, one of the twins reached up from the endotracheal tube, opened his eyes. The other one did the same thing by the time he got to the ICU. Within two days, they were extubated. Within three days, they were eating. Within two weeks, they were crawling, and today, they’re perfectly normal.  

“One of the neurosurgeons in the case later said to me, ‘We could not believe what you were doing. We were watching, but we could not believe what you were doing.’ That’s because I wasn’t doing it. I came to understand that during my career. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t work very hard, that I didn’t study the cases very hard, that I didn’t hone my skills – because the Lord had a plan.” 

Faith in education 

Education has always been important to Carson, but he worries about public education’s decline, yet welcomes the explosion of Christian education around the country. 

“I’m pleased to see (Christian education’s growth) because of the direction that we’ve been going,” he said. “And since the Department of Education came into being, it’s not been a good direction. It was conceived of in 1979, initiated in 1980, and we’ve been going downhill since that time. … 

“I believe (God) is at work. We’re seeing it all over the country as we go around. We were at a Christian school yesterday morning in Virginia. Almost all the Christian schools are bursting at the seams with waiting lines to get in because people realize what’s happening with our public school system. And school choice is really starting to become well recognized and accepted across the country, and I think that will force the public schools back into the correct lane. So I’m actually very optimistic.” 

Carson and his wife, Candy, also ensured they raised their three boys with the same Christian values they hold dear, making time together a priority during their child-rearing years. 

“We have three boys, and I have to give a lot of credit to my wife, Candy, who’s sitting here in the front row, because she has a degree from Yale and a degree from Johns Hopkins, but was willing to stay home and raise the boys,” he said. The entire family also traveled with Carson all over the world so they could be together. 

A reluctant, America-loving presidential candidate

Carson retired as a doctor in 2013, and two years later he ran for the Republican presidential nomination. But he told the Herzog audience he never really wanted to be president. 

“Running for president was a very interesting part of my life, particularly when I reached frontrunner stage, and the media started attacking, coming up with all kinds of stories,” he said. “But you know, it all worked out well because I didn’t really want to be president. 

“The only reason I ran for president is because I thought we were losing our country and thought it was going to go off the cliff. And as I got to know (then-presidential candidate) Donald Trump, he and I actually became good friends, and I realized that he did want to be president.” 

Carson remains friendly with President Trump, who just appointed him to be vice chair of the Religious Liberty Commission, established by a recent executive order. 

It’s the continuation of an accomplished career for Carson, who was asked at the end of Tuesday’s event for just one last takeaway from his 73 years of life. 

“Well, I think no matter where your ancestors came from – be it England, be it Africa, be it Portugal – it doesn’t matter where they came from – you’re probably better off here than you would have been in that place. And it’s a blessing to be an American.  

“Candy and I have visited 68 countries, and we lived overseas, and I can tell you: there is no place like America. We should be very proud of it, and we should do everything we can to preserve it.” 

The Herzog Foundation regularly hosts prominent speakers as part of its American Dream Speaker Series. For more information, visit herzogfoundation.com.