Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson gave a wide-ranging speech touching on everything from the Charleston massacre to Obamacare in front of social conservatives gathered in Washington, D.C.
“If we don’t pay close attention to the hatred and division going on in our nation, this is just a harbinger of what we can expect,” Carson said to the Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C.
“These things hit so close to home and why don’t we don’t take a moment of silence,” he added, pausing the room before regaling the crowd with stories of his childhood, time as a doctor and faith journey.
The retired neurosurgeon told a story from his teenage years when he found himself in a fight with a friend and became so senselessly angry he reached for a knife. Carson attempted to stab his friend in the hip, but actually hit him in the belt buckle instead. Carson recalled being more terrified than his friend, realizing that he could have killed him.
Carson said he found God that day, having realized the destructiveness of anger and how with one wrong action, he could ruin his friend’s life and his own.
“I came to an understanding during that time, to lash out at somebody, to punch somebody in the face, was not a sign of strength, but a sign of weakness. It meant you could be easily controlled, easily manipulated,” he said. “I also came to understand that being angry has a lot to do with selfishness…that is the last day I had an angry outburst. It has never happened again since then.”
On Obamacare, Carson said that the government’s “control” is at odds with freedom. He urged the audience to be faithful to their convictions.
“We are going to have to be wiling to stand up for what we believe in,” Carson said. “The majority of Americans actually have common sense.”
