Ben Carson: Kindness is the most important virtue
In the midst of a fairly caustic campaign season, Ben Carson is calling for a little more kindness. He's also urging Americans to talk to people who are different from them.
"Despite these profoundly divergent and conflicting times, we must not allow them to cause further division and strife," the Republican presidential candidate wrote in a Thanksgiving op-ed in The Hill. "Instead, we must take the time to talk and to listen to one another, because it is the uniqueness of our differences that will ultimately heal, inspire, and revive America."
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Kindness, Carson wrote, is "the most important of all virtues, because without it, one cannot practice any other virtue consistently." Kindness requires compassion and empathy, he wrote, "which allows us to have a mutual respect for our fellow citizen."
Carson, who is a Seventh Day Adventist, refrained from writing about any political issues and instead delivered a broad, Christian message.
"If you have an opportunity, talk to someone who is different from you, someone who may not be the same skin color or share the same ideas, because this is how we truly learn from one another," he wrote. "God created us all in His image, and in His abundance of love, He gave His only begotten Son."