Carson’s Humility Of Heart Trumps Trumpzilla’s Macho Man Act

 

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Let me tell you something, Sister McAllister.  If you write nothing ever again, write about humility.  No one else will.  You know why?  Because we live in a world, as St. Augustine said, that is all puffed up on pride, and to write of humility would be to write one’s own damnation.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest….

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Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  “Ben Carson’s Humility Upstages Donald Trump – In attacking Ben Carson, Donald Trump reveals his ignorance that greatness cannot be attained through pride”:

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The recent dustup between Donald Trump and Ben Carson has highlighted a striking difference between these two non-establishment frontrunners in the Republican presidential race. This difference will prove to be a profound advantage for the famous neurosurgeon.

When asked what sets him apart from Trump, Carson said, in his typical soft-spoken style, “I’ve realized where my success has come from, and I don’t in any way deny my faith in God. ‘By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life,’ and that’s a very big part of who I am. I don’t get that impression with him [Trump]. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t get that.”

Trump, promising to fire back on anyone who “attacks” him, called the doctor who, at the age of 33, headed the Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and separated conjoined twins “just an okay doctor,” then said, “You look at his faith, and I think you’re not going to find so much.” [/private]

Carson is a man of strong faith and has been for many, many years. He’s also deeply humble. [Mike: Then she goes into his personal and professional accomplishments, which I won’t bore you with.]

‘A Man’s Pride Brings Him Low’

Carson describes how he slipped out of the bathroom long enough to grab a Bible. He opened it and began to read Proverbs. “The verse that struck me the most powerfully was, ‘Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than who takes a city’ (16:32). During the two or three hours that I remained in the bathroom, God performed a miracle in my life—He took away my temper, and I can honestly say I have never been troubled with anger since.” [Mike: This is after he recounted a story about how he locked himself in his bathroom because he was about to throw a temper tantrum at one of his friends.]

“That day was the beginning of a lifelong habit—the daily reading of Proverbs,” [Mike: Great book, by the bye. So is – some of your Bibles won’t have it in it – the Book of Wisdom.] he continues. “…Words from Proverbs finally got through to me and forced me to rethink much of life. Especially I recall 29:23: ‘A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.’“

When questioned on the campaign trail about how he’s different from Trump, Carson said he realized where his success came from and won’t in any way deny his faith . . .

Humility: A Strength the World Needs

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Mike:  Let me tell you something, Sister McAllister.  If you write nothing ever again, write about humility.  No one else will.  You know why?  Because we live in a world, as St. Augustine said, that is all puffed up on pride, and to write of humility would be to write one’s own damnation.  That’s why I think Father Cajetan Mary da Bergamo’s Humility of Heart changes people’s lives, because it makes you look at the virtue of humility in a way that — I know it did for me, and for many of you that have written me and told me that it make you look at it — in a manner in which you’ve never looked at it before.  You know, once you’ve looked at it that way, you can’t ever get it out of your mind.  Now you’re thinking about it all the time going: Was that just a prideful act?  Did I just lack some humility?

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I think most people would agree. Trump has admitted he’s not an active member of a church and that he doesn’t really see the need to ask God for forgiveness. Carson’s observation that they are very different is hardly a scathing attack. But when Trump said, “Who is he to question my faith?” Carson responded, not with anger or arrogance, but with the humility he learned when he was a young man. “I would like to say that the intention was not to talk to him, but about what motivates me. If he took that as a personal attack, I apologize, it was certainly not the intent.”

Carson’s intention was to focus on the humility and faith he learned a long time ago as he sat on the edge of the tub and thought about how his anger could have led to pain and suffering, even death.

“Being set free from arrogance did not come overnight,” he wrote, “but it began that day. From then on, whenever I got an indication from someone that I was being arrogant, it would feel like a sharp jab in my stomach. Even now, winning against pride is a struggle. . . .

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Mike:  Dr. Carson, let me tell you, it’s going to remain a struggle.  Again, referring back to St. Augustine, the moment you have the thought that you have conquered pride and that you are humble is the moment that you’re not.  You’ll be repeating until death: I am not humble, not humble enough.

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This, however, does not give me the right to boast—I am only using the gifts that were given me. Knowing this does make me thankful.”

How refreshing to hear a man of such success, such notoriety, speak with such grace and humility. This is not to say that Carson is not a strong leader—to do the work he does takes fortitude and fearlessness. [Mike: By the bye, what is fortitude? There are four cardinal virtues. What are they? Justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude. They go in that order. Fortitude is last because, to have the other three, you have to have fortitude.] As he has written, “humility is not groveling.”

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Mike:  When people think humility, they confuse or conflate humility with meekness.  That leads to confusion.  The two are not the same.  If you read Humility of Heart, Bergamo explains that, why they’re not the same.  He also writes about the strength that humility grants.  You say, [mocking] “Mike, how can you be strong and humble?  Now you sound like a Christian idiot.”  Here’s the proposition.  If you do practice a humility of the heart, and if you do seek it and pray for that grace and try and live always seeking it and always aware that any hint of pride, something that must be guarded against and you must stop, then you’re removing yourself from part of — the more you do this, the more you’ll remove yourself — from part of the equation, from part of the idea that you or I or any of us are in control.  You’re not in control.  That’s the illusion.  Only the humble man can possibly fathom that he’s not in control.

To recognize that you’re not in control would also be to recognize who is in control.  Who is in control can, as we’ve seen miraculously done, make the sun dance up and down in the sky.  Who is in control can raise the dead and bring them back to life.  That’s not weakness; that’s power.  Only the humble man can tap into that power.  Read the Psalms.  Carson says he likes reading Proverbs.  Those of you who are Bible readers, read the Psalms.  You can just hear David pouring his heart out.  He’s usually angry at himself because of what?  Because he caught himself being prideful.  By the bye, of the books that are quoted in Humility of Heart, Psalms is the most.  Back to D.C. McAllister’s Federalist blog today.

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Disillusioned Voters Pit Pride against Pride

We have been bombarded for years by arrogance from the highest office. We’ve had a president who says “I” much more often than he says “you.” We have a leader more concerned with his agenda and legacy than with what’s best for the American people. We now have presidential candidates who praise themselves more than they praise others.

Ironically, one of the impulses of the populist movement we see today is disdain for the arrogance of politicians who refuse to listen to the people, to set aside their own egos to speak for those they represent, to sacrifice their own glory to for the sake of the country. Yet, in this rebellion against elitist arrogance, too many have gravitated toward more arrogance. Pride is now pitted against pride. I promise you, no good will come of it.

The antidote to arrogance and pride is what Carson found as a young teenager in that bathroom with a broken knife in his hands. The answer is humility. The meek shall inherit the earth. The lowly gain honor.

Again, this is not a call for weakness. The humble man is the strongest man of all, for he knows the source of his strength is not in himself. The humble man is “driven to his knees,” as Abraham Lincoln wrote . . .

Greatness Doesn’t Come From Arrogance

Carson says that the more success he has had, the more his gratitude to God has deepened. By telling his life story while emphasizing that God has enabled him to do everything he has yearned to accomplish, he has had the opportunity to testify that God is still active today and that people can have hope and not remain victims to circumstance. [Mike: I’ll throw in here, again, as St. Augustine says: I am capable of doing little, but through You I am capable of doing everything. He might say anything. Of course, he means that within corporeal limits.]

This is the very same message he told a group of high-school students in Washington DC several years ago at the National Science Olympiad Championship. My son, a freshman at the time, was one of those students. He sat in the audience, mesmerized by Carson, hanging on every word. My son, who has faced many trials of his own, was inspired not to think like a victim but to be the best he can be, to overcome through faith, to work hard and take personal responsibility for his actions, and to be humble in all he does. [/private]

My son, a brilliant and kind young man, is now applying to graduate school to become a research scientist. [Mike: Then she goes on more about her son.]

Trump said that if we looked at Carson’s faith, we wouldn’t see much. I have looked, and I see a great deal. Dr. Ben Carson is a man of substance, humility, kindness, and faith. Given that our country is afflicted with the deadly disease of pride, [Mike: You have no idea how true that is, sister.] his humble leadership is the healing balm we need . . .

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Mike:  I won’t read the rest because some of it is just pablum for Ben Carson for President.  There is some good stuff in here.  The fact that someone other than me has introduced the subject of humility into the discussion of who is to be the next leader of the free planet, I think, is a positive development.

End Mike Church Show Transcript