When Dr. Ben Carson was a young medical student, he struggled greatly on his first set of comprehensive exams. As a result, he was called in to meet with his academic counselor. The counselor reviewed Carson’s records and assured him that there were plenty of other ways to earn a living outside of medicine. Then, the counselor delivered a sobering conclusion: “You’re just not cut out to be a doctor.”
Devastated by this feedback, Carson rushed home, fell to his knees, and prayed for guidance. This moment of prayer inspired him to change his approach. He decided to spend less time in classroom lectures and instead focus on reading, research, and more reading and research.
Carson went on to defy his counselor’s opinion, graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School and starting a world-renowned career. At just 33 years old, he was appointed as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Years later, he returned to the medical school where he had once struggled. This time, he was the commencement speaker. Carson recalled, “I was looking for that counselor because I was going to tell him, ‘You’re just not cut out to be a counselor.’” His words drew laughter from the hundreds in attendance at Utah Valley University’s Ragan Theater during a lecture hosted by the Herbert Institute for Public Policy.
Most people know Carson for his work outside of neurosurgery.
As a Republican, Carson ran for president in the 2016 election, ultimately losing his party’s nomination to the man who would later become his boss, President Donald Trump. After Trump’s victory, Carson was appointed as the 17th secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
A bestselling author, Carson continues to serve as a national adviser for nutrition, health, and housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His appearance at UVU comes at a time of pain and healing across the Orem campus. Less than two months ago, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking to an outdoor crowd of thousands.
“In the wake of the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, we couldn’t have timed (Carson’s) visit any better,” said Justin Jones, the Herbert Institute’s executive director, during his introduction of Carson. “Dr. Carson is a voice of reason in his personal, professional and political life.”
How ‘reasonable people’ find solutions
In a lecture touching on faith, prayer, resiliency, the promise of America, and finding common ground with others, Carson traced his own unexpected path from childhood poverty to renown and influence across multiple communities.
He began Wednesday by paying tribute to Kirk. “Charlie was an incredible person — and he was really the antidote to the radical leftism that is trying to fundamentally change our country. The radical left doesn’t mind so much that people speak about it, but they do mind when people listen. That was the issue with Charlie. People were listening — and he understood that the hearts and minds, particularly of our young people, were being indoctrinated, and he couldn’t just sit by and let that happen without giving the other side of the story.”
Carson added that you could sit the country’s most radical left-wing person across from the most radical right-wing person — and they would agree on 80% of their beliefs. “It’s that 20% that they don’t agree on that we’ve allowed to be massaged into hatred and division — and that’s what we don’t need to do. This is called the United States of America.”
Those who want to fundamentally change us recognize that we cannot be overcome militarily, but we can be overcome internally. And if they can create enough strife and hatred, it will be every bit as effective as a military conqueror.”
Carson challenged his audience Wednesday to “sit down at the table” and have discussions that start with that 80% agreement. Begin by establishing relationships. “And from there, we can talk about our differences and why we feel the way we do,” he said. “Reasonable people will be able to come up with a solution. But the thing I can tell you for certain that doesn’t work is the ‘My way or the highway’ philosophy, coming from either side.”
Overcoming a violent temper through prayer, scripture
Carson said he’s often asked why he’s so calm in an anger-fueled world. “I wasn’t always like that,” he answered. “There was a time when I got very angry.” As a poor youth growing up in Detroit, he battled a violent temper. He would lash out, even assaulting others.
By the time he was 14, he realized that his temper would ultimately place him in jail, reform school, or the grave. “And none of those things appealed to me.” So he locked himself in a bathroom, dropped to his knees, and began to pray — asking God to help him control his temper.
He located his family Bible, picked it up, began reading, and discovered Proverbs 16:32: “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Young Carson determined then that his anger was fueled by selfishness. He decided to hand his troubles to God.
“When God fixes the problem, he doesn’t do a paint job. He fixes it from the inside. That’s what you have to understand. Develop that relationship with him — and let him work through you.”
Soon Carson found he was doing better in school even while discovering his lifelong love for reading. He devoured biographies of explorers, entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, and surgeons. “I began to realize something very important: The person who has the most to do with what happens to you — is you. It’s not somebody else. And I stopped listening to all the naysayers and the people who were saying, ‘You can’t do this. You can’t do that. Society is against you.’ I just threw all that stuff in the garbage. I started reading everything I could get my hands on. And in the space of a year-and-a-half, I went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class.”
Carson: Great racial progress happening in the U.S.
Carson also recalled a time Wednesday when one of his public school teachers berated his white classmates because they were being outperformed by Benjamin — “a boy of color who comes from a broken family.” But the kids didn’t buy the teacher’s argument because, he said, “they knew that people are people.”
Carson then challenged notions that the country has made little racial progress. “That’s the wrong message,” he said, recalling a childhood visit to the Deep South and seeing “Whites Only” signs posted across town. But in the space of his own lifetime, Carson added, “you have black admirals and generals and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and heads of foundations and university presidents and a president of the United States. Don’t tell me that things haven’t changed. They have changed substantially. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have more things to do, because there’s always more things to do. But let’s also look at the progress that has been made.”
Drawing upon Charlie Kirk’s convictions
Carson also spoke Wednesday of the lifelong lessons that performing brain surgery — including the first fully successful separation of Type-2 vertical craniopagus twins — have taught him about faith and trusting God. He’s learned that it’s easy to blame God when things go wrong and ask, “Why?” That, Carson added, is when faith comes in.
“(God) can see the beginning from the end. He can see how failure here sets you up for success there.”
The United States, said Carson, is unique because its founding document says “our rights come from our creator, and not from government.” “This was something that Charlie preached incessantly about — that we were different because of our belief system. It was a belief that you should love your neighbor, not cancel your neighbors if they disagree with you. This is something that we must get over as soon as possible.”
The nation’s strength, Carson concluded, lies in its unity. “If we understand that, it will be very difficult for China or anybody else to overcome us — and we will truly have one nation under God.”
A conversation with Dr. Ben Carson
Prior to his UVU speech Wednesday, Carson spoke to the Deseret News about a variety of subjects.
On speaking at UVU just weeks after Kirk’s murder:
Carson noted that he had been scheduled to speak at the school prior to Sept. 10. “It’s just a coincidence, I guess, that I happen to be here right after that happened, because I like to talk about unity, and I like to talk about the fact that our destination is within our own hands. We get to choose what kind of people we want to be and how we want to react to other people and to other situations. That will determine what happens to our country, and that will determine what happens to the world. This brings it into sharp focus very quickly.”
How pain and adversity can be catalysts for personal growth:
“Irritation causes the oyster to produce a pearl. If you go through life without the ups-and-downs, and particularly the downs, sometimes you don’t have the incentive or the opportunity to develop some very strong characteristics which prepare you for other things. If you take somebody who’s never had any adversity in their life, and you put them in a critical situation, they’re probably not going to do that well. But somebody who’s been through it is going to provide much greater leadership.”
Does the former HUD secretary see a pathway to the American Dream of home ownership?:
“There’s absolutely a pathway. The technology that has developed in home building has been incredible. … Some of the small homes and some of the things that had been converted into homes, they’re really quite ingenious, and they’re nice. The problem is not that we can’t produce these things economically. The problem is that we can’t get people to live in them because of regulations. We can probably produce a very nice unit for $150,000 but in Los Angeles — but by the time you get to adding all the regulations, it’s $600,000. It’s crazy.”
Carson also addressed the nation’s homeless crisis, saying most of the people living on the streets are dealing with addictions or mental illness. “If they got regular medications and care, they could be perfectly functional individuals.”
Thoughts on where “Making America Healthy” begins:
“It begins in the ground — with the way we treat the soil, with the kinds of pesticides and other agents that we subject the seedlings to, all the way until it gets to your plate and the whole series of processes that go on. And it begins by looking at data. The life expectancy in this country has been stabilized or going down over the last several years — whereas in other industrialized countries and in Europe, it’s going up. What’s the difference? Massive amounts of food processing that they don’t allow. Massive amount of artificial coloring, artificial flavoring and all kinds of things, as opposed to taking whole grains and whole foods that the Good Lord put in all those foods for our benefit. We leach them all out and put substitutes in. Of course, that’s not going to work out well for you.”