Tennessee state senator and army secretary, Mark Green, told a group at church that he was against universal health care because it will push people away from Christianity.

According to the Washington Examiner, in 2015, Green insisted that the Christian church should be responsible for taking care of the sick, this way they can have a bigger influence in the religion people practice.

“The person who’s in need… they look to the government for the answer, not God, and I think in that way government has done an injustice that’s even bigger than just the creation of an entitlement welfare state,” Green said. “In this setting, I’ll share the story, I think it interrupts the opportunity for people to come to a saving knowledge of who God is.”

Green claims that because Jesus used his powers to heal people, it’s only natural that the modern-day church continue with this role.

“If you look at the Gospels and you go and study the Gospels, every person who came to Christ came to Christ with a physical need,” he said. “It was either hunger or a disease.”