Dr. Ben Carson: We need to get back to what made America great
Former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson discusses meritocracy with equity on 'The Story.'
EXCLUSIVE - Former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson is calling on Americans to step up and fight for the traditional family as the best line of attack against cultural forces he sees trying to destroy America.
In his new book, "The Perilous Fight: Overcoming Our Culture's War on the American Family," the founder of the American Cornerstone Institute outlines how the breakdown of the family and sidelining of faith in our culture has led to devastating consequences for all Americans.
"We're rapidly losing our identity as a nation. We're doing illogical things. And we're moving in the opposite direction of our history," Carson remarked to Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview ahead of the book's May release.
"And I don't think most people are taking enough time to stop and actually see what's going on… This book is really a wake-up call."
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Dr. Ben Carson spoke with Fox News Digital about his new book, "The Perilous Fight: Overcoming Our Culture's War on the American Family." (Getty Images/ Elin Hughes Photography)
Carson makes the case that since the 1960s, Marxist beliefs have infiltrated virtually every sector of American culture, from schools to Hollywood to politics to churches and the media. These forces have targeted the family and religion, he says, leading to the steep declines we see today in marriage rates, children raised in two-parent households, and Americans identifying as religious.
He points to older and more recent studies indicating that children who are raised in non-traditional, single-parent households are dramatically more likely to grow up in poverty, not finish high school, and end up in the criminal justice system.
The breakdown of the family and religious influence in society has in turn led to a morally relativistic culture, Carson argues.
"We've lost our shared language of right and wrong. As a result, American culture (not to mention American families and individuals) is being torn apart by illicit drug use, sexual promiscuity and perversion, fiscal irresponsibility, selfishness, disrespect for others, hatred, moral relativism, lack of patriotism, decreased faith, increased secularism, decreased concern about the rights of others, an increasing authoritarianism," he says in his book.
San Francisco, he argues, is a case study in how communities will suffer negative consequences when its leaders are openly hostile towards traditional families and religion.
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San Francisco's progressive policies have led it to become more dangerous than 98 percent of cities in America, Carson claims in his book. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Despite these troubling trends, Carson is optimistic the culture can be turned around. He argues that the best rescue for America is for individuals and families to fight to protect and restore the traditional family's influence.
The family is a powerful force in the culture because parents help shape a child's identity and values, he explained.
"Being raised in the appropriate environment gives you your identity," Carson told Fox News Digital. "And your identity is that thing upon which your beliefs are based. And if you have a solid identity and a solid belief system, then you're not so vulnerable to every whim that passes by, making people very susceptible to manipulation."
He also stressed the importance of raising the bar for education at a time when many students in districts across the country are failing math and English proficiency tests.
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Carson calls on Americans to wake up to the forces attacking families and faith in society today. (iStock)
"That happens with virtually every society that turns communist or socialist. You dumb down the population first, and that's happening in our population. Already you can see the results of how our kids are declining and how we share near the bottom, particularly STEM areas in all the international surveys. And that's very, very harmful to us as a nation," the retired neurosurgeon claimed.
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Carson concludes his book by calling on Americans to get involved in their communities, churches, libraries, schools and city councils, as well as support specific public policies in order to reshape the culture and return it to the values it once cherished.
"I want people to take away from this that we, the American people, are not each other's enemies, and we're being manipulated by forces that want to fundamentally change us," he said. "It's not going to be fixed by the government, it can only be fixed by the involvement of the people. And they have to be willing to stand up for what they believe in," he urged.