Senator Jim DeMint told Neil Cavuto:
Well, this morning, I went to the National Prayer Breakfast.
Barack Obama spoke about the importance of faith. Tony Blair spoke about the importance of faith. It was a great experience, over 3,000 people from all over the world.
Then, I get back here, and we’re working on this so-called stimulus bill that would prohibit any religious activity in any college or university facility that uses any of these funds for modernization or renovation.
It is just a phrase that I think the ACLU had stuck in this bill, because they are the real proponents of keeping it in there, that would really take advantage of religious freedom, Bible studies, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, whether it is on a student center, a dorm, an auditorium where prayer might be offered.
But this is hardly a fundamental problem with the alleged stimulus package. The root problem is that it massively violates rights through billions of dollars of forced wealth transfers. Yes, it violates the rights of the religious to force them to fund activities that exclude religion. But it also violates the rights of others to force them to fund religious ideas and activities.
To his credit, DeMint opposes the “stimulus plan” in general, not just for religious reasons.