Several influential Christian conservative leaders in Iowa, even those who publicly back GOP candidates other than Carson, came to the defense of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Monday.
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“I’m Presbyterian”, Trump said at a rally in Florida on Saturday.
Barbara Nuechterlein, a retiree from Cedar Rapids, is unsure of Seventh-day Adventists but that doesn’t make her rule out Carson.
“When I pick up my Bible, you know what I see?”
Trump didn’t name Carson, then he denied in an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he was trying to plant seeds of doubt about his chief rival, who’s now the front-runner in Iowa, polls show. But Republican caucusgoers say they got the message.
“A lot of people would ascribe any weird thing they heard about anybody – they’d say, ‘That’s the Adventists, ‘” he said. David Corn at Mother Jones drew on Adventist teachings about the “end times” to ask in a piece earlier this week if Carson believes, as Corn reads other members of that church as doing, that “almost all evangelical Christians will soon join with Satan to oppose Jesus Christ”.
Trump’s comment appears to be backfiring in Iowa, where his support is declining.
“He’s falling behind in the polls”. Loma Linda is a Seventh-day Adventist Church-owned hospital and medical school, and Bailey’s controversial 1984 implantation of a baboon heart in Stephanie Fae Beauclair, an infant whose congenital heart defect was a death sentence, advanced the procedure.
“Sometimes they get caught up in that and forget about the real objective of Christian faith”, he said. While the church avoids involvement in politics, Carson’s emergence as a prominent political figure has presented an opportunity for it to gain credibility.
“Personally, I think we should look at each candidate individually in regards to their character and their positions on the issues rather than trying to bring up their religious background as a test”, he said. Two points of pushback for you to respond to: one, evangelicals in Iowa may be embracing Dr. Carson because of his faith.
Ben Carson: “There are a few people who live and breathe a particular religion, and I live and breathe a relationship with God”.
Senate Chaplain Barry Black, who gained notoriety for his pointed prayers during the government shutdown two years ago, is the first Seventh-Day Adventist chaplain in Congress. Two House members also hail from the church: Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas; and Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., who like Carson, is a doctor.
“I do see Seventh-day as a cult, and I see it as outside of Christian orthodoxy”, said Dave Garlich, a 42-year-old Winterset Republican who works as an underwriter. He said he appreciates Carson’s political views, and Carson’s religion has nothing to do with why he doesn’t intend to caucus for him on February 1.
You know what? People – when people think about – we get so caught up in these denominations – that one is better than the other – but what matters is a person’s moral compass.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is having a moment. And whether you’re willing to surround yourself with counselors who know more about (sic) you on foreign policy; or maybe, about the economy, so you can grow together – because like Dr. Carson says, in a multitude of counselors, you will find wisdom; you will find the answers to move this country forward.
Nuechterlein also has qualms about Adventists who believe in the writings of evangelist Ellen White as much as they believe in biblical scripture. Though Kennedy may have genuinely believed the things he said in his Protestant ministers speech, the reason he felt compelled to lay them out so starkly was that, at the time, the possibility that a Roman Catholic might be elected to the presidency was, in the eyes of many Americans, a scandal. From that time on, Mr. Carson prayed away his anger.
Cary Gordon, senior pastor at Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, isn’t a Carson fan.
Trump’s new line of attack on Carson is uncharacteristically subtle, probably because Carson is well liked by Republicans.
Q: How does this type of worship compare to Saturday services with the Seventh-day Adventist church? “But we believe we’re not on the fringes; we are Bible-believing Christians”.
“It’s not like Mitt Romney and Mormonism”.
Adventism is a Protestant Christian faith, albeit slightly different from the “down-the-middle” Presbyterian religion Trump claims. The movement has, to a slight degree, softened its stance on homosexuality in recent years, but its opposition to same-sex marriage remains firm, as it does among most evangelicals in America.
In a country that prides itself on religious tolerance-one where a right to free exercise is codified in the first words of the First Amendment-the idea of holding someone’s religion against him strikes many as untoward.
“There is still a long way to go before votes are cast, and we are focused on maintaining and building on our lead”.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was born from what is known as the “Great Disappointment”, when Jesus failed to arrive in 1844 as expected by thousands of Christians in a moment of widespread religious fervor known as the Second Great Awakening.
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It seemed odd for me that Trump would think that voters might favor a “middle of the road” Presbyterian.
