Ben Carson Finally Apologizes For Comparing Same-Sex Marriage To Pedophilia

A week and a half after Dr. Ben Carson outraged the LGBT community by linking same-sex marriage to pedophilia and bestiality in a nationally televised interview on Fox News, the Johns Hopkins brain surgeon is finally apologizing for his hateful remarks.

Carson had already tried to walk back his comments and extinguish a few fires late last week during an appearance on MSNBC, but he didn’t issue much in the way of an apology. This time though, in an email sent to the Johns Hopkins community, he sounded sincere:

In a Friday email to the Hopkins community – which a source shared with POLITICO – Carson apologized for having caused “any embarrassment” to the institutions he has been affiliated with.

“As you know, I have been in the national news quite a bit recently and my 36 year association with Johns Hopkins has unfortunately dragged our institution into the spotlight as well. I am sorry for any embarrassment this has caused,” wrote Carson, who is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. “But what really saddens me is that my poorly chosen words caused pain for some members of our community and for that I offer a most sincere and heartfelt apology. Hurting others is diametrically opposed to who I am and what I believe.”

A majority of students in the 2013 graduating class at Johns Hopkins’ School of Medicine signed a petition calling on the administration to replace Carson as this year’s commencement speaker, but a report yesterday suggested that university officials were still planning invite him. Faculty and staff at JHU also condemned Carson’s remarks in the days following his appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program.

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Ben Carson blasts 'vicious,' white liberal critics as ‘the most racist out there’

Dr. Ben Carson on Tuesday blasted his critics for heat he’s taken recently over controversial remarks on gay marriage, calling his white liberal detractors “the most racist out there.”

“They want to shut us up completely, and that’s why the attacks against me have been so vicious,” Carson said on the Mark Levin radio show. “I represent an existential threat to them. They need to shut me up, they need to get rid of me, they can’t find anything else to delegitimize me, so they take my words, misinterpret them, and try to make it seem that I’m a bigot.”

Levin said Carson was being targeted for his race.

“You’re attacked also in many respects because of your race,” Levin said. “You’re not supposed to talk like this, and a lot of white liberals just don’t like it, do they?”

“They’re the most racist people there are because they put you in a little category, a box,” Carson responded. “How could you dare come off the plantation?”

The comments come after the rising GOP star apologized for remarks he made last week linking homosexuality to bestiality.

Carson said that marriage is “a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality — it doesn't matter what they are, they don't get to change the definition.”

NAMBLA is the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

Carson, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, initially defended the comments as taken “out of context and completely misunderstood,” but the furor provoked students at his university to petition to have him removed as this year’s commencement speaker. Carson has said he would step aside if that’s what the students wanted.

Carson became an overnight sensation on the right after criticizing President Obama, who was seated directly to his right, at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this year.

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Rising GOP star Carson defends comments on same-sex marriage

Dr. Ben Carson on Friday defended comments he made earlier this week that linked homosexuality to bestiality. 

Carson, a rising GOP star who came to fame in conservative circles with remarks critical of President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast, said in an interview on MSNBC that his comments had been taken out of context. 

"I think what was said on Sean Hannity's show, that was taken completely out of context and completely misunderstood in terms of what I was trying to say," Carson said. "As a Christian I have a duty to love all people and that includes people that have other sexual orientations, and I certainly do."

Carson added that he hadn't meant to equate same-sex marriage to bestiality. 

"I wasn't equating those things, I don't think that they're equal," Carson said. 

But the pediatric neurosurgeon maintained his opposition for gay marriage. 

"My impression is what's being asked for is the convenience of the title 'marriage,' which is an institution that was established by God, and I'm not sure that that is the same thing" as letting same-sex couples have the same federal rights as heterosexual couples," Carson said. "Everybody has right of association and if we don't give them the right to transfer property and have visitation et cetera, then we really should be examining that."

During an interview on Sean Hannity's radio show on Tuesday, Carson, a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University, argued that marriage is "a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality — it doesn't matter what they are, they don't get to change the definition." 

NAMBLA is the North American Man/Boy Love Association. 

Carson on Friday said his opposition to same-sex marriage was not based on antagonism toward gays, but on Biblical beliefs. 

"And when I say we don't want to change it or degrade it by calling it marriage that's not aimed at any particular group," he said of gay marriage. The Bible and God "have set very specific standards," Carson said. "It's very clear what's being said. God doesn't change, man changes."

Carson's comments on Hannity's radio show resulted in an effort by some Johns Hopkins students to replace Carson as the 2013 commencement speaker. Carson suggested he would not be the speaker if that's what the students wanted.

"I would say that this is their day and the last thing I want to do is rain on their parade," Carson said. "I am waiting for appropriate channels."

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Bozell, Varney Discuss Media Ignoring Pro-Free Market Speech by Dr. Carson at Prayer Breakfast

Dr. Ben Carson has received little coverage in traditional media outlets for a speech he gave last Thursday at a prayer breakfast in which he advocated a flat tax and health savings accounts to improve the American economy and the health care system, respectively. The little attention he has gotten has been negative, with the media indignant that the world renowned neurosurgeon dared to "disrespect" the president by offering policy proposals that deviated from the government-centered ones of Mr. Obama's liking.

Even so, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the Tuesday edition of Varney & Co., because of talk radio, and the Internet, "the toothpaste is out of the tube" and while it may take longer for more people to become aware of it, "This story will not stop growing." "This proves why the networks are becoming increasingly irrelevant," the Media Research Center founder told the Fox Business Network anchor Stuart Varney. [MP3 audio here; video of segment follows page break]

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My First Job: Jon Carson

My First Job: Jon Carson | The White House Skip to main content | Skip to footer site map The White House. President Barack Obama Get Email UpdatesContact Us Go to homepage. The White House Blog Photos & Videos Photo Galleries Video Performances Live Streams Podcasts State of the Union

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Colleen CurtisMay 17, 2012
01:40 PM EDT Share This Post Summer Jobs+ is a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for young people in the summer of 2012. It's about helping people find their first jobs.

Today Jon Carson is the Director of the Office of Public Engagement at the White House. In the video below, he talks about his first job -- working on a farm in Wisconsin. He bailed hay, which meant spending his summer days unloading hay onto an elevator in a hot and dusty barn. His hard work paid off however, because this job is where he also earned his first raise.

So far, employers have listed more than 300,000 jobs, mentorships, and other employment opportunities this summer through Summer Jobs+.

You heard about Gene Sperling's first job. Now go find yours.

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Watch Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, talk about her first jobWatch Cecilia Munoz, Director of the White House's Domestic Policy Council, talk about her first job.Watch Jimmy Fallon talk about his first job.See the list of participating employers and organizationsCheck out a range of web and mobile apps designed to connect young people to jobs. Related Topics: Economy, Wisconsin PREVIOUS POST
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At Emory University, Darwin’s Bullies Smear Commencement Speaker, Dr. Ben Carson of Johns Hopkins

From the diaries.

The serious problem of bullying in junior high and high school has received some overdue attention lately. Lee Hirsch’s documentary Bully is in theaters and highly recommended.

But don’t think that bullying in academic settings is exclusively a phenomenon of adolescence. Adults also bully adults. That’s what is happening now at Emory University in Atlanta.

You can be a brilliant, innovative pediatric neurosurgeon at a sky-scraping top medical school, in addition to being a generous philanthropist with an inspirational up-from-dire-poverty personal story, plus a Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and a best-selling writer whose memoir was turned into a TV movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr.

But in the hands of academic bullies, if you once shared your critical thoughts on evolutionary science and its moral implications — well, everything else about you suddenly dwindles to very little.

Dr. Ben Carson of Johns Hopkins University is today’s target. He’s scheduled to give the Commencement address and receive an honorary degree at Emory this coming Monday. But close to 500 faculty members, students and staff protested, drawing up a gravely formulated letter to the Emory Wheel, the student newspaper, expressing their “concerns.” Over what? Carson had no intention of speaking about evolution but someone dug up an impromptu interview he once gave to a publication associated with his Christian denominationon that subject.

The protestors – lead by Professors ArriEisen, Jaap De Roode, Nicole Gerardo, and IlyaNemenman — distorted Dr. Carson’s position on the moral implications of Darwinian materialism and insinuatingly questioned his grasp of the science behind evolution. Emory hasn’t withdrawn the invitation and the letter’s signatories don’t demand that. But they try to make him sound like a fool, putting in his mouth the absurd opinion that “those who accept the underlying principle of biology and medicine are unethical.”

Carson in fact explained that he’s not impressed by the evidence for Darwinian theory. He also commented on why a materialist philosophy is at odds with free will and how that makes it tough to offer a coherent account of moral principles.

The academic bullying that Emory’s faculty has visited on Dr. Carson is not an isolated episode. Scientists who ask tough questions about evolutionary theory are routinely intimidated and silenced by advocates of Darwinian orthodoxy.

Journalists and courts of law have documented a variety of other, far more disturbing cases of bullying for Darwin, at academic institutions including Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech, the University of Kentucky, Iowa State University, the Smithsonian Institution, and elsewhere.

Emory’s spokesman, meanwhile, has struggled to explain how a Darwin-critic could possibly have received such an invitation.”Our leading life scientists would define our views on evolution,” he sniffed, “and the number of signatories on that petition would probably speak to that.” This is a shameful, and shaming, way to welcome a guest.

The onus is on university officials now to defend Dr. Carson’s right to hold a dissenting view, and to promptly reaffirm that Emory is pleased and honored to have him. Discovery Institute is gathering signatures on a petition making exactly that point. Please sign.

Dr. Carson’s unwelcoming welcome sends a message to less renowned and therefore less bullet-proof scholars. If they open their mouth to question Darwin, fellow academics will not only disagree but will hurt them by misrepresenting their opinions.

Imagine the results if he were someone else: a young scientist seeking a strong start to his career, a not so young but still untenured scientist with his livelihood to protect, even a tenured academic worried about his reputation and the future careers of his own grad students.

This is how Darwinists maintain the fiction that the scientific community has reached a freely determined “consensus” in favor of Darwinian evolution and against intelligent design. The consensus is maintained by intimidation, by bullying.

It’s a farce, but for vulnerable people in academic life, a scary farce.

David Klinghoffer is Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News & Views, Center for Science and Culture

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