Gentle Ben (the retired neurologist, not the has-been Hollywood bear)

Ben Carson’s 10-year-old Opus: “Take the Risk”

Dr. Ben Carson is a Seventh-day Adventist. You are doubtless already aware of this fact.

Take the Risk: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk

 

by Dr. Ben Carson        A Truncated Summary

Dr. Ben Carson is not afraid to take risks, and his illustrious career as a groundbreaking neurosurgeon was (he is now retired) marked by many instances where he ventured well beyond the limits that conventional wisdom had established. He did not do this in a thoughtless or haphazard manner, however, but weighed both the advantages and potential consequences of every proposed action in advance. Risks are acceptable when a case may be made that proves a calculated risk is preferable to taking no action whatsoever. To quote a common proverb (albeit a non-Biblical one), “nothing ventured. nothing gained!” The free-enterprise economy that is typical of most nations is predicated on risk-taking, but entrepreneurs who succeed are usually those who have taken calculated risks.

 

Dr. Carson reveals a series of questions that he asks himself prior to undertaking unprecedented endeavors-

What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

The author refers to this comprehensive technique as the Best/Worst Analysis in subsequent portions of Take the Risk.

This seemingly simple formula requires one to consider every possible consequence that might develop not only from the performance or non-performance of a proposed action, but of every other conceivable alternate course of action. Decisions, and particularly decisions that are a matter of life and death, are best made by highly trained professionals like Ben Carson. While many competent leaders are born, rather than made, the exponential increase in knowledge of our present age (the last days) means this is principally the era of the specialist. Brain surgery is an esoteric art, so those who perform this type of surgery must possess a vast database of information pertaining to their field stashed inside of their heads. Considered initial decisions, based on long experience, and on research that occurs in advance of a difficult procedure are invariably modified or augmented by the many split-second decisions that will arise during an operation. Strategy and tactics will both come into play.

Dr. Carson is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The event that Dr. Carson uses as a long (2+ chapters) introduction for his book is the attempted separation of a set of Iranian twins, young female lawyers, who were born connected to each other at the backs of their skulls. They both desperately desired to lead separate existences, and were willing to go so far as to risk their very lives to gain this independence. The venue selected for the attempt to surgically divide the Siamese Twins was Raffles Hospital in Singapore (named for Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore). In initial consultations between the twins and Dr. Carson, he strongly advises against the surgery. The procedure was incredibly complicated, and fraught with peril. The surgeon informs the twins that he considers the level of risk to be unacceptable, but ultimately accedes to their strong desire to risk death for the sake of freedom. They refused to take no for an answer.

 

Dr. Carson was but one member of a very large team of experts and support personnel that would be involved in the surgery. Dozens of pages of Take the Risk are devoted to a play-by-play description of the ups and downs of the separation process. The whole world was watching over the shoulders of the team, and was itching to hear about the successful conclusion of the affair. Alas, success eluded the participants, and Laden and Laleh (the names of the twins) died due to uncontrollable bleeding, there on the operating table that had been specially constructed for them. Ben Carson writes on Page 31 of his book- “I wasn’t sure which sensation cut deeper, my sadness or my fatigue. I just knew it was a horrible feeling I never wanted to experience again.”

Risks are not always rewarded, but the forward progress of civilization depends entirely upon those who are willing to take risks. Progress was made in the field of cranial separation due to the 50-hour surgery that ended, tragically, with the deaths of the two patients. In the aftermath of this ostensible failure, Dr. Carson repeatedly questions God regarding the meaning behind the tragedy. He discovered the silver lining in this dark cloud of failure when the techniques he learned in the course of the attempted separation of the Iranian twins were later used successfully to separate a set of similarly joined African twins three years later.

Dr. Carson, who was at this time the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, talks about surgery to separate Ladan and Laleh (Iranian lawyers). It did not work out.

Dr. Carson describes a subsequent, and successful operation in the fourth chapter of his book, one entitled Life Itself Is a Risky Business. A four-year-old girl named Maranda Francisco suffered from frequent grand mal (French for “very bad”) seizures due to a rare condition known as Rasmussen’s encephalitis. Dr. Carson was requested to perform a hemispherectomy, or the removal of half of the brain. The length of, and the large scale of the fruitless operation on the Iranian twins prepared the surgeon for this subsequent effort. Skill was supplemented by stamina, as the type of surgeries Dr. Carson specialized in can be likened to running a marathon.

 

The author laments the aversion to risk that marks most of contemporary America. He notes that the very foundation of the United States was an enormous gamble. A relative handful of insurgents managed to defeat a nation that was, at that time, the most powerful in the world. Turbulence was also a hallmark of the Cold War, and the unease that attended it then yielded to the War on Terror. Life itself is, indeed, a risky business. The book forsakes empirical anecdote for mathematical rigor when Pascal’s creation of Probability Theory is cited by Dr. Carson. It is now possible to statistically model risk levels. Insurance actuaries do this reliably enough to maintain the profitability of the companies they work for, despite the unpredictability of individual instances of destruction to life or limb.

Risk is all around us, and Dr. Carson notes that it is impossible to entirely avoid risk. He mentions the exponential growth of the number of substances and technologies that can potentially damage the minds and bodies of 21^st century earthlings. But while we may not be able to eliminate risk, we can make a reasoned effort to mitigate it. Dr. Carson provides several chapters of autobiographical material which affords him the opportunity to describe risk-taking behaviors in the lives of himself and his immediate family. He supplies a series of didactic reminiscences which reveal the youthful folly of the future neurologist, unconsidered actions that are retrospectively judged as insane by an older, and much wiser Ben Carson. Some better-informed instances of youthful risk-taking eventually paid big dividends when he obtained his theoretically unaffordable medical degree from prestigious Yale University. Providence guided the doctor and his new wife to a position with John Hopkins University, an institution that lies on the cutting edge of advances in medical science. A heavy workload at the university hospital exposed him to cases which prepared him for what he refers to as "the most critical case" of his career.

An unqualified success, and the case that placed the national spotlight on Dr. Carson- the separation of the Binder Twins. This is a before and after image.

In 1987 a couple, Josef and Theresa Binder, brought their sons Patrick and Benjamin to John Hopkins. The boys were conjoined at the back of their heads. Dr. Carson writes that an attempt to separate the twins would constitute a journey into uncharted territory. Chapter 9 of Take the Risk is titled Four Simple Questions to Help Assess Any Risk, and elaborates upon the four questions emphasized by boldface type at the head of this summary. Preliminary information gathering can be facilitated by using six one-word questions that journalists are very familiar with. Dr. Carson replicates these short questions for his readers- Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? The author utilizes these six queries as headings for a detailed consideration of the pros and cons of an attempt to separate the Binder twins. The 22-hour surgery was successful. Carson was now not only a surgeon, but a celebrity as well.

 

Chapter 10 of Take the Risk is titled Faith Is a Risk- Whatever You Believe. Dr. Carson presents a reasoned argument for Creationism. He describes his presentation of a lecture on this topic before fifteen thousand Philadelphians. His defense of Creationism (as opposed to Darwinian evolution) is based upon the concept of Intelligent Design. The universe is subject to entropy, which a destructive and disordering process, yet life manifests increasing levels of complexity. Callous logicians contemptuously dismiss this observation as being an indisputable proof of the existence of a Creator, but Ben Carson is a Christian. He chose to take the risk to talk about his faith to a predominately secular audience. His association with the Seventh-day Adventist Church is not mentioned in this chapter, but his role as a consensus-builder is proclaimed. You cannot sell Jesus unless you first manage to get your foot in the door. An entire paragraph from Page 114 of Take the Risk will be replicated below. The evangelical approach described in it serves not only to explain the many successes that mark the career of Dr. Ben Carson, but may also serve to partially explain a recent failure.

People who think they aren’t doing their Christian responsibility or fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission unless they preach an in-your-face message are just not looking at the big picture. It doesn’t matter whether your approach turns off a hundred people or a hundred thousand. What good have you done? In the bigger picture, the ultimate goal, the real instruction Jesus gave his followers, was to attract others- not to repel them.

Assiduous Bible scholars might take exception to the preceding statement. Matthew 24:9-14 states…

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

The contemporary Seventh-day Adventist Church is energetically attempting to win new Christians, and new Seventh-day Adventists by meeting non-Christians and Christians who happen to be non-Adventists at the halfway mark. There exists a significant amount of common ground that Adventism and other Christian denominations share with each other. It is acceptable for emissaries of the remnant church to venture, like good diplomats, into foreign places to represent the best interests of their theological homeland. But a real danger exists that, while they are in Rome, doing as the Romans do they may forget that they themselves are NOT Romans. The big-tent of Adventism is perfectly amenable to the absorption and inclusion of cultural differences, and this helps to explain its rise in what has been condescendingly designated the Second and Third World nations of the earth. Compromises on theological issues, however, are inadmissible. Too much of an accommodation to the world only serves to dilute the core values of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Dr. Ben Carson paid a visit to Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church in Atlanta back in 2013. This is an archival image taken during his visit, but this is not Dr. Carson. It is some other doctor.

Q- What is the best thing that can happen if we proclaim the three angels’ message to the world?

 

A- We save some portion of the world from oblivion by spiritually removing them from the world.

Q- What is the worst thing that can happen if we do not proclaim the three angels’ message to the world?

A- We do not inherit eternal life. We might also fail to be elected President of the United States of America, and wind up being merely a member of the President’s cabinet.

Chapter 17 of Take the Risk is titled Even Bigger Risks. A subsection s titled The Risk of Silence. It advocates the public discussion of spiritual matters. Regarding Dr. Carson’s reluctance to forthrightly champion the unique, but imperative Adventist message to the world from the bully pulpit that he has laboriously established for himself, it might be said that his silence speaks volumes.
 

Here is some addenda from a blogger who is also named Ben’s BLOG–

Update 08/15/16: Ben Carson lost a good deal of my respect by endorsing Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential primaries, after his own bid softly fell asleep to the sounds of the good doctor’s gentle intonations of some fairly incomplete policy plans. Thus, take this older post with a grain of salt. [Click on the link above to view the original, and highly laudatory post]

Even cynical ( a synonym for “perceptive”) observers who may also happen to profess Christianity must admit that, at least with regard to a slightly emasculated and generalized manifestation of adherence to Christ’s Great Commission, Ben Carson, M.D., has proven himself an infinitely greater source of good than of evil. He hasn’t got an evil bone in his body! A cold, calculating,  and cut-throat Machiavellian who might have been standing in his shoes back when “Take the Risk” was first published (2007) would probably be President of the United States today. But Dr. Carson is just too nice to have ever been elected. It has been noted that nice guys finish last, but  had one wagered on Dr. Carson to either win, place, or show in the 2016 presidential election, they would at least broke even. This summary will conclude with an ancient Chinese proverb-

“Politics makes strange bedfellows!”