“Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” – 2 Peter 2:19, New American Standard Bible
Dr. Ben Carson suspended his presidential campaign earlier this month, after polling around or below 10 percent since January. Soon after, he endorsed former political enemy Donald Trump’s run for the GOP’s nomination.
When interviewed about why he decided to endorse Trump, Carson felt that “this is what God was telling me to do,” citing 2 Peter 2:19 as his main source of clarity.
“When I look at this verse,” Carson explains, “it shows me something about myself and the political system as a whole.”
Carson’s analysis of the verse is that, since Trump has ‘overcome’ him in the race, he has earned Carson’s endorsement as a symbol of political slavery.
Carson is not Trump’s first victim, either. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie endorsed Trump last month, expressing a bit more bluntly than Carson that “to serve the man who felled me is the greatest honor a political warrior can know.”
Though biblical scholars tend to analyze this verse with a negative connotation, Carson seems to see it as a humbling realization. He noted in his endorsement speech that he does “fight for freedom, but if this Christian nation did not want me, I must be a slave of corruption and in need of more light from God.”
Trump commented on both Carson’s and Christie’s endorsements in an interview with Fox News, saying “they aren’t as nice as the guys’ heads on my mantle, but they’ll do.”
Trump later noted, however, at a rally in Los Angeles that he doesn’t “want losers’ faces in my house. Carson and Christie? They’re losers. They lost.” Trump, with a smug grin on his face, was then happy to point out that “my house is full of photos of me and my family: good, strong faces, the best faces.”
