- And joining us now, Dr. Ben Carson,

former Secretary of Housingand Urban Development

and author of the new kid'sbook, "Why America Matters".

Dr. Carson, welcome.

Congratulations on your new book.

We do want to talk to you about that,

but first let's talk about mandates.

You're on the record sayingthat vaccines are good,

mandates are not, addingthat mandates open the door

to dangerous precedents.

Explain what you mean by that.

- Came to America from all over the world

is because this was aplace that had freedom,

it had Liberty.

And those liberties are givento us, not by the government,

but by God, the right tolead our lives as we should,

without interfering with anyone else.

And when we start opening ourselves

to government officialssaying, "You must do this,

you can't do this, you mustsay this, you can't say that,"

we really are startingto fundamentally change

the foundation of our nation.

And we have to be very muchaware that that is a big issue.

You couple that with thefact that you're trying

to mandate something thathasn't been fully proven.

We don't know what the long-termimpact of this vaccine is,

particularly when you'redealing with children.

We do know that when you'redealing with children,

you don't have a high riskfrom the virus itself,

but we don't know what the long-term risk

of the vaccines are.

So we need to be a littlemore careful, I think.

- Dr. Carson, there isdebate as we just heard,

and Heather's reportingabout the potential harm

of claiming a religiousexemption for masks or vaccines,

watering down other religious claims,

and that debate evenhappening among pastors,

as we just heard the expertssay religious exemptions

are meant to be a remedy,

not for objecting just a bad policy.

Dr. Carson, do you see a casefor religious exemptions,

particularly for masks?

And if so, how would you defendthat from that standpoint?

- Well, you know, as far asvaccine is concerned, you know,

some of the laboratory workis done with fetal cells

and that's a legitimateconcern for some people,

so I understand that.

You know, as far asthe mask are concerned,

I'm not exactly sure whatthe religious implications

are there,

but there are some gooddevelopmental arguments there.

Children, for instance,

need to learn how to correlatethe facial expression

with what's being said,that's a very important part

of sociological development.

And if we deprive them of that,

we don't know what thelong-term effects of that are,

but they can't possibly be good.

- So your book, WhyAmerica Matters for kids,

it's also connected to yourprogram called Little Patriots.

Dr. Carson, why did you write this book?

- Well, we were concerned thatmaybe a lot of our children

were being indoctrinatedin a way that made them

not proud to be Americansand not really knowing

what our history, our true history is.

And looking at some ofthe foundational pillars

that made America to a greatnation, our faith, our Liberty,

our community, and our respect for life,

and bringing that to our young people

in a way that is interactive,

a way that they can understand very well,

a way that's fun for them.

And helping them to understandthat we, the American people,

are not each other's enemies.

And we need to be very waryof those who are trying

to make us into enemies.

And that's something that evenour very youngest citizens

should be able to understand.

- Important lessons toteach, even at a young age.

Dr. Ben Carson, thank youso much for joining us

on Faith Nation, this evening.

- Always a pleasure, thank you John.