Watch my Brody File interview with him below (along with the transcription) and hear him tell the story about how he God sent him signs along the way that showed him God was right by his side.
It’s a pretty fascinating story.
David Brody: Where do you stand with Evangelicals?
Herman Cain: I’m a Baptist preacher. A lot of people don’t know that. My parents joined Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta in the mid 40s when they moved to Atlanta when I was 2 years old. That was the church I grew up in. That was the church I joined at 10 years of age. I’ve been in the church all my life. When I moved around in my corporate career, I always stayed involved in the church.
So my faith is a big part of who I am and at my church now, which is the same one I grew up in, I’m one of the Associate Ministers there because I was called to the ministry. Sometimes when people are called to the ministry they think that God wants them to give up something else. But God has done some magnificent things with my life, especially what he has done in terms of my health.
Let me share this with you real quick. In 2006, I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. I had cancer in my colon and cancer in my liver. I had to go through chemotherapy. The surgery required removal of 30 percent of my colon and 70 percent of my liver. And then I had to go through some more chemotherapy.
That was nearly five years ago and I only had a 30 percent chance of survival. God said ‘Herman, not yet’.” My question was, 'Lord why are you keeping me here?' Now let me tell you why I know God kept me here. Let me give you why I know God kept me here to do something that I never envisioned.
When I started thinking about running for president, I thought about Noah. Noah didn’t know how to build an ark. I started to think about Moses. Moses resisted going back leading the children out of Egypt. The Bible is full of people. Joshua didn’t want to lead the children into the Promised Land. God spoke to Moses and encouraged Moses, you must talk to our son Joshua, and he did and that gave him the strength.
When I was first detected that I had stage 4 cancer I had to go and get a second opinion. The doctor that was recommended was a doctor in Savannah, Georgia, three hours away from Atlanta. I resisted. I said, 'why do I need to go all the way to Savannah and I live here in Atlanta with all these hospitals and doctors here. I know I have cancer. I know what we need to get done. Let’s get on with the program.'
You know that business mentality. And so the friend of mine said, 'I think you want to go see this doctor. His name is Dr. Lord.' I said, 'What? L-O-R-D?' Yes. He was a colon cancer specialist. Dr. Lord gave me my second opinion.
When I went to MD Anderson Cancer Center and I had to go through orientation with my wife in terms of how to navigate through this big medical facility, we went into the orientation office and the lady that was supposed to give us our orientation, she was busy with some other new patients. So the lady at the counter said to keep you and Mrs. Cain from waiting, I will give you your orientation so you won’t have to wait.
I said, 'Well thank you. How nice I didn’t know they had good customer service at a big medical facility but they do.' So we go into the conference room and she put all the materials down that we were supposed to go through. And she started to tell us about what we needed to do, how I could get my blood work done the night before. I said, 'wait a minute. You’ve been so nice. What is your name?' She said 'Grace'. I said, 'Do you spell it the same way as you spell it in Amazing Grace?' She said, 'yes.'
A lady named Grace. My wife and I looked at each other and I said, 'thank you Lord.' He's with me on this journey. I’m not done yet. I was randomly assigned an oncologist and a surgeon. The surgeon’s name is Dr. Abdullah. He’s from Lebanon. That made me a little nervous initially but only to find out that he’s a Christian. He’s a Christian and when I went in to see Dr. Abdullah. he was explaining to me how he was going to remove a part of my colon and a part of my liver in one operation.
I’m going, ‘Doc you must be a miracle worker. How are you going to do that’? The colon is on the left. The liver is on the right. How are you going to do that with one incision?'
He said, I do it all the time. I'm going to start in your sternum and I'm going to make an incision in the shape of a "J". As in J-E-S-U-S? He said yes. A Jesus cut. I said, 'thank you Lord.' God said 'not yet' and He gave me these signs along the way that let me know that He was with me.
And I firmly believe that God kept me for a reason much bigger than I ever would have dreamed or imagined. Whether that is ultimately to become the President of the United States or not, I don't know. I just know at this point I am following God's plan.
You get two plans in life: yours and God’s. Now mine was to become a successful businessman and I was able to do that. And I believe that God allowed me to become a successful businessman because He had something else in mind beyond that successful business career.
The reason I’m here today and the reason I believe that I’m going to be successful from this point forward. There was a song that a songwriter who was a good friend of mine when he was alive, he wrote a song called ‘God is on my side’. I’ll never forget it.
Brody: These candidates are going to have to deal with Herman Cain.
Cain: They’re going to have to deal with Herman Cain.