Ben Carson, a Christian nationalist advocate and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, attacked separation of church and state during a February address at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Carson was speaking at the Academy’s National Character and Leadership Symposium and during a question period told the crowd, “And those people that like to criticize America – criticize people in America – and always talking about separation of church and state, which is not in the Constitution, by the way – do they realize that our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, talks about certain unalienable rights given to us by our creator, aka God? Do they realize that the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag says we are one nation under God? In many courtrooms, on the wall, it says ‘In God We Trust’? Every coin in our pocket, every bill in our wallet says, ‘In God We Trust.’ So, if it’s in our founding documents, it’s in our Pledge, it’s on our courts, it’s on our money, but we’re not supposed to talk about it. What in the world is that? In medicine we call it schizophrenia.”
Carson failed to mention that the U.S. Constitution contains no references to God, Jesus Christ or Christianity, that the Pledge of Allegiance as originally written was secular and that “In God We Trust” was not adopted as the nation’s official motto until 1956.