Wait, why is Ben Carson a vegetarian?

At the risk of going all Get Religion over nothing: it’s a little weird to read articles about Ben Carson’s vegetarianism that fail to mention that the presidential candidate is a member of a church that promotes vegetarianism.

Nathanael Johnson celebrates the optics, while Samantha Rollins wonders about the politics. Jenny Hopkinson cites health concerns as Carson’s main motivation. Arthur Delaney and Ashley Alman note that Carson once stated his hope for a time when “there will no longer be a reason for most people to eat meat.” Only one of these links mentions “his religion,” and none finds space for the term “Seventh-day Adventist.”

Both Delaney and Alman and Hopkinson refer to a 1990 profile of Carson in the Vegetarian Times. That piece credits both Carson’s Adventist faith and his health concerns—which, to be clear, are hardly separate categories. Healthy living and a healthful diet have long been Adventist distinctives, little emphasized by most other Christian denominations but a significant part of Adventist identity.