Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the Obama administration limited religious freedom through executive overreach and said the United States should project “the Christian voice” internationally.
Bush, a Republican and Catholic convert considering a 2016 White House run, made the remarks during a commencement address Saturday at Liberty University, the conservative Christian school in Lynchburg, Va.
Bush said President Obama has used “coercive federal power” to stomp out religious freedom.
“What should be easy calls in favor of religious freedom have instead become an aggressive stance against it,” Bush said, according to the Associated Press.
Bush’s competitors in the crowded Republican presidential field have attacked a provision in Obamacare that requires employers, even those with religious objections, to provide health insurance plans that cover birth control for their employees. Conservative opponents have called the measure an attack on religious liberty.
“Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn’t the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith,” Bush said.
