Skip to content

Ben Carson: Gay Marriage, Abortion are ‘Evil’

Former GOP presidential candidate defends linking Clinton to Lucifer

Ben Carson said there was some "pretty good consistency there" between Hillary Clinton's values and "what is espoused by evil." (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
Ben Carson said there was some "pretty good consistency there" between Hillary Clinton's values and "what is espoused by evil." (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson — who loosely associated Hillary Clinton with an admiration for Satan during his Republican National Convention speech Tuesday — went one step further the next morning, equating gay marriage and abortion rights with “evil.”  

“When you look at the principles that are espoused by Christ, by Christianity, then look at what is espoused by evil, and then you look at things like killing babies, you look at things like redefining marriage away from what the biblical definition is, I think there’s pretty good consistency there,” Carson said on CNN’s “New Day .”  

Carson was speaking in defense of his convention-night claim that Clinton’s values were suspect because of a 1968 college thesis she wrote on Saul Alinsky, the late Chicago-based community organizer. Alinsky wrote an epigraph that mentioned Lucifer in a book published in 1971, “Rules for Radicals.”  

Carson described the passage in his speech as an acknowledgement of Lucifer. The accusation was widely ridiculed and became one of the headlines from an otherwise tame second night .  


 

As a presidential candidate, Carson previously said he should not be judged for the actions of his youth. But on Wednesday, he said Clinton’s admiration for Alinsky was different from his own youthful indiscretions.  

“You have to also use your brain. You say if she believed that at that time, now look at her actions. You look at what she advocates — the killing of babies, the dissolution of traditional marriage, all these kinds of things. Those are pretty consistent, quite frankly,” Carson said.   

He also pointed out that Clinton had been on a “first-name” basis with Alinsky and that he offered her a job after college, an episode Clinton described in her 2003 memoir “Living History.” Clinton declined the offer in favor of attending law school, she wrote.  

“Rules for Radicals”  is about influencing public policy. The Lucifer passage, one of three epigraphs, reads, “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”  

Carson contrasted the passage during his convention speech with the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance.  

“This is a nation where every coin in our pocket, and every bill in our wallet says, ‘In God We Trust,'” he said. “So, are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer? Think about that.”


Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android.

Recent Stories

Justices agree to hear dispute over California emissions rules

Farewell tours — Congressional Hits and Misses

Trump signals foreign policy will run through him despite nominee noise

Photos of the week ending December 13, 2024

Walberg gets Republican panel nod for House Education chair

Trump risks legal clashes in plans to not spend appropriations