“Rapture Ready” Ben Carson Blames Islam for Impending End of Days

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:14 pm

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A vote for “Rapture Ready” Ben Carson is a vote for a candidate who thinks we’re approaching the “end of days.” And sadly, he’s not talking about the end of his candidacy but the end of the world as we know it.

Journalist Sharyl Attkisson asked him Sunday on “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” if he thought they were near:

“What is your view on what’s happening around the globe and here in the U.S. in terms of what’s in the Bible? Do you think we’re at the end of days?”

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Carson’s answer was not what you want to hear from your presidential hopefuls: “You could guess that we are getting closer to that.”

Sunday’s interview was, in many ways, an interview of the surreal. Take a look courtesy of Full Measure:

According to Carson, “You do have people who have a belief system that sees this apocalyptic phenomena occurring and that they are a part of it, who would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if they gained possession of them.”

Almost certainly Carson was talking about Islam and somehow did not see the irony that his words were true of alleged Christians like himself, who seem to think God needs a little nudge in the right direction. It has been argued that the Jewish zealots who went up in flames in Jerusalem in the first century when they rebelled against Rome were trying to “force God’s hand.” There are plenty of Religious Right figures today who talk in a similar vein.

Attkisson asked Carson if he thought the “end of days” could be avoided: “So is there a chance to change the course if it is something that’s prophesied?”

He responded that “I think we have a chance to certainly do everything we can to ameliorate the situation.”

And then, in a bizarre and perhaps Freudian choice of words, Carson added, “I would always be shooting for peace. I wouldn’t just take a fatalist view of things.”

So here we have a presidential hopeful who says “I am a Christian [and] I believe in godly principles,” but who will not admit President Obama is a Christian. Carson told Attkisson that,

“[I believe in] loving your fellow man, caring about your neighbor [and] developing your God-given talents to the utmost so that you become valuable to the people around you.” And apparently say as many stupid things as you can fit into a single presidential campaign.

This is a man who has single-handedly made Donald Trump appear thoughtful and reflective.

He told Attkisson,

“I don’t think that our policies make a whole lot of sense,” where Obama’s approach to Syrian refugees is concerned.

“If you have people coming out of a region of the world where you’re likely to have infiltration by jihadists, why would you bring them to a country they are dedicated to destroying?”

Um, maybe because they are being killed, tortured, and driven out of their homes and need some simple f*cking Christian charity, Mr. self-proclaimed Christian? Carson says he doesn’t take a “fatalist view” of things yet he assumes these homeless refugees are bent on destroying the United States.

Seems pretty fatalist to me.

This interview was a bizarre meeting of minds, and far more inevitable than any “end of days.” The case of Attkisson is interesting in itself. CNN’s coverage explains that she is “a former CBS reporter” while Salon refers to her as “a discredited former CBS News veteran.”

Attkisson left CBS News in 2014 claiming that the network had a liberal bias of all things (remember, they are the only network to avoid mentioning whistleblower Bradley Podliska’s revelations about the Benghazi Committee Sunday). Those with the network who saw her reporting as agenda-driven and less than impartial were no doubt closer to the mark.

In her book Stonewalled: One Reporter’s Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington (Harpers) she said she actually believed not enough time had been spent covering Benghazi and that the “liberal media” protects Obama.

Yes. She said that.

And yes, Ben Carson said we’re approaching the “end of days” and that Islam is to blame. Here we have his own religion, which has not been able to pull its mindset away from Jesus’ return (the “Parousia”) for 2,000 years, and he’s blaming Islam? The United States, which Christian zealots like Carson want to control, has a huge nuclear arsenal. To the best of our knowledge, because they haven’t used one, the Muslims Carson fears so much have exactly ZERO.

But he is pointing fingers at Islam. This is right up Attkisson’s agenda-driven alley, and it exposes once again the conservative fear of “the other” as people who are above all driven by dreams of our destruction. It seems clear, however, that the real obsession over our destruction is driven by a dystopian Republican agenda that feeds on fear and hate.

It is not going too far to say that as even President Obama has noticed, the GOP has not figured out what it’s “for” because all they talk about is what they’re against.

It you like negative waves, the GOP is the party for you, because these people are bent on partying like it’s the end of days.

America – and the world – deserve more than a president who is looking at the “end of days.” We want to look forward into a wide-open future of hope, not into Carson’s rapture-ready abyss of despair.



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