Dr. Carson has earned a second look from all traditional Christian voters. I had dismissed him earlier because he lacks the traditional qualifications for political offices and shows a lack of depth on many issues. However, this may be the year for the “outsider” and Dr. Carson is intelligent, has a heroic backstory, and is learning quickly.
One thing he should not learn is how to lie like a politician.
When asked about his involvement in a dodgy supplement company, Dr. Carson denied any involvement with the organization. This is only defensible in a Clinton-world where words get parsed and relationships are legally defined. He spoke for the business, he said he uses their product, he appeared in a commercial for the company. Read this story and watch the video.
That is “working” for the company in the common folk definition of the term and “endorsing them” as most of us understand it. The legal niceties may give him wiggle room, but we are electing Carson to a great extent based on his (otherwise) great character and not on much else. If we gain a good reason to question his character, what else does he have going for him?
My greatest fear is that this decent man has fallen into the world of Professional Christian Incorporated where truth is stretched and ethics challenged. Ghost writers produce books that the author could not have written, but get no credit or almost no credit on the cover. For profit and not for profit companies mingle in ways that are legal, but feel weird for a ministry. Truth becomes a matter of what is precisely true given this long complex contract, not true as most people understand it.
We know that Carson worked for a speakers group and they paid him. We know that if Evil Incorporated had tried to hire him, Carson would have turned down the gig. He has a say. He did not just go to the supplement group and give his generic stump speech, he touted their product. As a medical doctor, a superb surgeon, his opinion had extra weight. He did not use the phrase “endorse,” but appearing in a commercial is helping sell the product.
The company made enough dodgy health claims they had to pay a very large fine . . . and this is usually hard to get a company to do since they most often have parsed their language enough to slip through the legal cracks. The ethics of that kind of behavior is also questionable. If Dr. Carson wants to be President of the United States, he can put all this behind him.
He can tell the truth and leave Professional Christian Incorporated behind him. Here is the truth: “I took this supplement. I liked the product. I made some paid speeches for them and appeared in a video commercial. I did not know the company was engaged in bad business practices. I should have been more careful and I was not. While I technically did not work for the company or “endorse” them, reasonable people would think I did.” He should then borrow a page from Lee Iacocca faced with a problem at Chrysler and say: “I screwed up. My integrity means more to me than the money or technicalities. I will return this payment.”
This will put the issue behind him for the rest of the campaign. If he cannot do this, we don’t need someone who cannot escape the dirty underbelly of the Evangelical movement as our standard-bearer.
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