Want to Understand America? Start With Faith, Dr. Ben Carson Says

Published: April 1, 2026

By Mallory Mattingly

Dr. Ben Carson recently explained why Americans need to understand our country’s faith foundations.

“A lot of people really don’t understand the role of faith in our country, and they say we’re not a faith-based country. I wonder if those people have read our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, which says that our rights come from our Creator,” Dr. Carson told Fox News Digital. “Very cogent. It’s a fundamental part of our foundation. And they say that our founders were Deists. They believed that there was a God, but they didn’t think He played any role.”

But a story about George Washington and the Battle of Monongahela points to God’s powerful role in our country’s beginning.

“Obviously, they don’t know a lot about our history, about George Washington, and how much he prayed, and how he was called a bulletproof Washington,” the neurosurgeon and politician continued. “Because during the Battle of Monongahela, during the French and Indian War, he was the only carrier that wasn’t shot and killed. He had two horses shot from beneath him. Had four bullet holes in his coat, bullet fragments in his hair, no flesh wounds.”

“And interestingly enough, one of the Indian chiefs came to him many years later still, before he became president, and said, ‘I just needed to see you before I die, because I’m an expert marksman, and I shot you 17 times, and my men shot you, and pretty soon I told them to stop shooting at this man who’s protected by the Great Spirit above,'” Carson recounted. “‘And I just wanted to meet the man who would become the father of a great nation.'”

“And that used to be in all of our history books, before it became politically incorrect, and they want to take it out,” Dr. Carson added.

Dr. Carson’s notoriety arose after he performed the first successful separation twins conjoined at the head. GIFTED HANDS: THE BEN CARSON STORY recounts his life story, from growing up in a single-mother household in Detroit to becoming a world-renowned figure in science and politics.

Since retiring in 2013, Dr. Carson and his wife, Candy, have made it their mission in life to bring faith back into our country.

“We need to stand for the principles that God has given us: love and life and not being afraid,” he said of faith at the American First Policy Institute. “And I thank America First Policy for standing up, because right now, America is on the verge of deciding between our system and socialism, and we have to be willing to stand up for what we believe in. Never give way. God designed this country for a purpose. Each one of us has that purpose in our lives.”