Dr. Ben Carson, a pediatric
neurosurgeon at John Hopkins University and a conservative celebrity
often mentioned as a possible GOP presidential candidate, on Thursday
criticized pastors who support marriage equality.
Carson made his comments during an
appearance on Family Talk radio, which is hosted by Dr. James Dobson,
the founder of Focus on the Family who left the ministry in 2009.
“I find it difficult sometimes to
understand why ministers are willing to abandon the scripture to go
along and get along,” Carson
said. “I just find that very puzzling.”
“I do too, especially the issue of
gay marriage,” Dobson responded.
Allowing gay couples to marry, Dobson
said, left out bisexual people, whom he described as having “sex
with males and females at the same time.”
“I have been on a crusade to say to
many ministers, and I’ll say it again now, that if men can marry
and if the things that are said about same-sex relationships and
marriage and the Bible are misunderstandings, what do you do with the
rest of LGBT?” Dobson rhetorically asked. “What do you do with
bisexuality? If one of those is right and proper and holy, what
about those who have sex with males and females at the same time?
That’s called orgies, that’s what it used to be called, or just
sleeping around with everybody and it doesn’t matter. How can a
Christian minister who reads the Bible condone that?”
Carson responded: “Well, you know, my
emphasis is that marriage is an institution established by God
himself. And when you look in the New Testament, the marriage
relationship is used to help us understand His relationship with His
people. So when you start distorting that, you’re really going
pretty deep into the finger-in-your-eye to God. That’s why I have
a hard time understanding why ministers are willing to do that.”