Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said Friday that Americans should be alarmed by what he described as a growing effort to erase the nation's religious foundations from classrooms and public discourse.
He said that children are receiving an incomplete account of U.S. history.
Speaking on Newsmax TV's "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren, Carson responded to a new report commissioned by children's publisher Brave Books alleging that public libraries and publishers are censoring faith from America's history.
"Looking at the direction of the country, it should concern everybody," Carson said. "They should be asking, What's happening to our country? Why are we falling apart? Why are we fighting each other so vigorously?"
Carson, a former Republican presidential candidate, said the United States' founding principles distinguished it from other nations because the Declaration of Independence states that individual rights come from "our creator and not from government."
"That was a radical departure from any other governance structure that ever existed," Carson said. "What happened? We rose from obscurity to the pinnacle of the world, in rapid succession."
He questioned whether the nation's success was merely coincidental or the result of "the Judeo-Christian values that guided us along the way."
Carson said many students are being taught what he called a distorted version of American history that focuses primarily on the country's failures, including slavery, its treatment of Native Americans, and immigrants.
"They're being taught that America is an evil place," Carson said. "They don't go away with a good, warm feeling. And those are not people who are going to become patriotic Americans."
He urged parents and others to become more involved in shaping what children learn, saying criticism alone is insufficient.
"We can't just sit back and complain about it," Carson said. "We have to get in there and join the fight."
Carson invoked a quote commonly attributed to Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, saying, "Give me your children to teach for four years, and the seeds that I sowed will never be uprooted."
He argued that supporters of traditional values should likewise work to influence the next generation.
"We need to be in there sowing seeds also and helping to realize who we are," Carson said.
Carson said he was not advocating for ignoring difficult chapters of American history but instead for presenting a more balanced account.
"I'm not talking about whitewashing anything," he said. "We need to teach our children the good, the bad, and the ugly.
"There's a heck of a lot more good than there is bad and ugly. It's not fair the way the other side presents us."
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