Ben Carson Leads Trump Cabinet in Prayer for Tax Cuts and “Courageous” President
December 28, 2017 | At the request of President Donald Trump, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson led the president and his cabinet in a prayer on December 20.
Carson, who is an Adventist, thanked God for “unity in Congress,” a “courageous” president as well as for an “opportunity for our economy to expand so that we can fight the corrosive debt that has been destroying our future.”
A CNBC report on Carson’s prayer called it “overtly political” due to the fact that Carson had thanked God for the “unity” between Republicans in the House and Senate that made possible the massive US tax cut announced this month. Carson prayed for the unity to “spread even beyond party lines, so that people recognize we have a nation that is worth saving.”
CNBC asserted that economists dispute the claim that the GOP tax cuts will help fight the national debt. The report says that tax policy institutes across America predict the cuts will instead add over a trillion dollars to the national debt over 10 years.
Carson’s prayer is included in full below:
Our kind Father in heaven, we’re so thankful for the opportunities and the freedom that you’ve granted us in this country. We thank you for the president and for Cabinet members who are courageous, who are willing to face the winds of controversy in order to provide a better future for those who come behind us. We’re thankful for the unity in Congress, that presented an opportunity for our economy to expand, so we can fight the corrosive debt that has been destroying our future. And we hope that that unity will spread even beyond party lines, so that people recognize we have a nation that is worth saving. And nations divided against themselves cannot stand. In this time of discord, distrust and dishonesty, we ask that you will give us a spirit of gratitude, compassion and common sense. And give us the wisdom to be able to guide this great nation in the future. We ask in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Carson drew considerable political attention when, as the keynote speaker for the 2013 National Prayer breakfast, he used his speech to criticize Obamacare in the presence of then-president Barack Obama.
He went on to launch an unsuccessful bid for the United States presidency, running as a Republican candidate in 2016.
