Our culture has a tendency to slam the Bible for being “okay” with slavery, but Dr. Ben Carson asserts that, on the contrary, the Bible condemns slavery. In this episode, Dr. Carson chats with us about his book Created Equal: The Painful Past, Confusing Present, and Hopeful Future of Race in America and shares what he thinks the church’s role in society should be, particularly when it comes to issues such as slavery.
1. Love your neighbor
Dr. Ben Carson says that, first and foremost, believers and the church at large ought to be kind to each other, no matter what the other person looks like. He gives the example of the parable Jesus told about the Good Samaritan, in which Jesus gives a very easy-to-understand example of how we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Samaritan couldn’t have been more different from the man who lay wounded on the side of the road. But their cultural and racial differences didn’t matter. Jesus’ message, Dr. Carson says, was to “love your neighbor, not cancel your neighbor if they disagree with you. That’s pure evil.”
Loving your neighbor these days can look like not arguing over political or religious differences or valuing someone’s perspective, even if it differs from yours. Humility and kindness go a long way when it comes to valuing others. This was, after all, Christ’s example for us (remember the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:1-42?) and it’s the church’s responsibility to model this for society as well.
“In America, we value each individual as a unique being and as someone who can bring a special perspective to the table, so we can work together to come up with commonsense solutions to problems.
-from Created Equal, Ben Carson, M.D.
2. Teach kids early
Another point that Dr. Carson makes is that we need to be teaching children early history in context. That means not sugar-coating but also not leaving out critical historical events. It also means portraying people groups in a balanced light instead of slanting history to fit our bias in order to train a child to feel or believe a certain way. Kids shouldn’t be ashamed of the color of their skin, nor should they feel guilty for actions that are not their own. They are made precious in God’s sight and He loves every single one of them! They should also be taught to respect one another, even if there are differences.
LittlePatriotsLearning.com is an excellent FREE resource Dr. Carson and his team are providing for private schools, public schools, parents, and grandparents who are looking for ways to start the conversation about American history with their kids. It provides kids with a solid foundation for understanding history as it actually happened without making one people group or another superior, inferior, etc. This can be helpful for kids as they seek to understand what has happened in the past, how far things have come, and how they can impact the future. Dr. Carson asserts there is fear on both sides (for whites and blacks): a fear of being misunderstood, a fear of being stereotyped, and a fear of being disrespected or not listened to. So the earlier and the better we teach our kids the truth about who they are and what their place is in history, the better off we as a society will be.