Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and well-known Christian conservative, Ben Carson, has tested positive for COVID-19, a HUD spokesperson revealed today.
The diagnosis comes less than a week after Carson attended an election-night party at the White House, where Mark Meadows, President Trump’s chief of staff, also made an appearance and later tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“Secretary Carson has tested positive for the coronavirus,” Coalter Baker, Carson’s chief of staff, reportedly told ABC News in a statement. “He is in good spirits and feels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery.”
Carson, a successful brain surgeon, reportedly prayed before every surgery he performed and has been outspoken about his Christian faith. Before taking office, he served as the national chairman of My Faith Votes, a non-partisan group that “exists to inspire and motivate Jesus followers to vote.”
Carson also is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). Seventh-Day Adventists maintain many doctrines professed by evangelical denominations. However, one SDA doctrine that is considered unorthodox is Sabbatarianism — a required observance of the Sabbath on Saturday.
Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Hurt and Healed by the Church” by Ryan George. To donate, click here.
SDA also has long framed health as a core spiritual concern for those within the faith. While the church does not mandate specific health practices, it encourages members to exercise, eat a vegetarian diet with supplements, and abstain from alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
The church’s website says staying healthy is a way to model a positive example of “God’s love and care,” explaining, “We believe God calls us to care for our bodies, treating them with the respect a divine creation deserves.”
Carson is known to abstain from alcohol and sticks to a mostly vegetarian diet. He has also advocated for mask-wearing during the pandemic, telling ABC News 5 Cleveland in June that “if we all do it, it will make a dramatic difference.”
However, Carson has reportedly been spotted attending indoor events this year without wearing a mask. It is unclear if he wore one while attending the White House election party, where all were tested beforehand. According to the Associated Press, many at the White House party — including Meadows — did not wear face coverings.
G. Alexander Bryant, the North American president of the Seventh-day Adventists, expressed concerns about the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus in October, saying it “impacts all of our churches, which is about 6,000 congregations, and all of our schools and all of our offices.”
Jack Jenkins is an award-winning journalist and national reporter for the Religion News Service. National reporter Emily McFarlan Miller also contributed to this report.
English 
Spanish
20 Responses
I don’t know why this is worth reporting here. What purpose does it serve the Christians?
There have been Democrat officials/leaders catching the Covid-19, yet it is not highlighted or even mentioned at all by this blog. Very curious.
Are any of the Democrats you mention leaders in the Christian community? I published this because it’s relevant to the faith community, just like I published when other prominent Christians, like Greg Laurie and John Hagee, tested positive for COVID.
Thank you Farmer for asking this question.
I’ve been asking the same question whenever Julie posts regarding a Republican/Christian testing positive for COVID-19.
Good reporting provides both sides. Like you, I have yet to read any blog posts here regarding a Democrat/Pagan testing positive.
We are here to support Julie’s excellent unbiased reporting that is “Reporting the Truth. Restoring the Church.” I don’t see how this post meets that criteria.
You can do better than this Julie.
Farmer,
Again, what “Democrat/Pagan” has contracted COVID who’s a leader in the Christian community? Do you expect me to report on people who contract COVID who have no relevance to my audience?
I thought this reporting was more about Ben Carson’s outspoken faith, position in My Faith Votes, and known status in the Seventh Day Adventist church. He is an important figure in the faith community, hence why I think this is on point.
Let ’em have it Julie! There are people here who just don’t get it, and probably never will, and frankly, don’t even belong on this post. Thank you for your gutsy, commitment to the truth.
Why such an unflattering picture of him?
It’s the picture supplied by RNS.
…and you are passing it along. He’s a good man. Why are you lowering yourself to this?
I’m glad others felt the same as I. Seems more political than anything, especially noting that he was at an election party at the White House, also attended by a Trump official who later tested positive. Just my observance.
The author of this article needs a lesson in clear writing…or maybe The Roys Report needs a better editor. “…required observance of the Sabbath” is ah, well…a commandment. Hardly “unorthodox.”
Clear writing … commandments … ah, what’s the fuss?
Christians…really? This is NOT CNN or the New York Times. This is VALID, CRITICAL news reporting primarily geared toward people of Faith (In our risen Savior). PERIOD.
I pray for Ben Carson’s recovery. He is a man of honor and integrity. As a former career employee of HUD, I would have been honored to work for him.
I find it fascinating that a supposed medical doctor would ignore all the medical advise and attend all these superspreader events at the White House and elsewhere. If he ignored the protocols like not wearing a mask, then I don’t have any sympathy for him at all. And I will nominate him for a Darwin Award should he die, just like I did for Herman Cain.
Well, professing no sympathy for someone certainly sounds like a wonderful, Christian attribute. Your keyboard warrior stance serves as a shining example to the rest of us.
Guess what? “Covid” isn’t going away, masks and vaccines won’t stop it, and we’re all going to get it eventually. The good news is that it’s not the Black Death, and we’ll all be fine.
Your attitude is disgusting.
ASKELADD,
Tell me do you profess sympathy for the drunk college kids who do something stupid like trying to run across multiple lanes of traffic? Or do you think something like, “If they weren’t doing something dumb like getting drunk, then maybe they would still be alive”. Or how about the criminal who barges into someone’s house or tries to rob a 7-11 and gets shot and killed by the owner? Do you feel sympathy for him?
Whatever ever happened to the so-called Christan and so-called conservative idea of personal responsibility for one’s actions? Or do you give an exemption for those on your political team?
CM, do you just write off someone who ends up experiencing horrible consequences of their bad behavior? Do you go around determining whether or not to extend compassion based on “if they deserved it”? Whew, I’m so glad our Lord doesn’t do that.
Personal responsibility and compassion are not mutually exclusive.
While Dr Carson may have been reckless – and I acknowledge he may be experiencing the consequences of being reckless – I also have compassion and pray for his recovery. And I’m no fan of his politics.
It’s sad to see the smugness, indeed the glee, with which certain “Christians” greet news of people of faith who do not share their political ideology getting covid.
Its sad indeed. We may be made in His image but the struggle ( and I include myself) to keep above the fray , so to speak, is very real. I probably would be nominated for some darwin award a time or too – but I dont want to be a presenter. Prayers for us all to be light and salt.
He recovered. Maybe an update in bold headlines?