The president vetoed a request by a Virginia-based Episcopal Church to be sanctioned by Congress in its efforts to provide for the poor.
In a written statement to Congress accompanying his rejection of HR 155 (also known as "An act incorporating the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia"), the president underscored his belief that government - independent of organized religion - has a duty to provide relief to the underprivileged (emphasis added):
[T]he bill vests in the . . . church an authority to provide for the support of the poor[,] . . . an authority . . . altogether superfluous, if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, [and which] would be a precedent for giving to religious societies, as such, a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civic duty.
Apparently dismayed by the president's appalling ignorance of the Founders' intentions, Texas Ministry of Truth Board of Education President Gail Lowe helpfully issued the following clarification:
"Many of us recognize that Judeo-Christian principles were the basis of our country and that many of our founding documents had a basis in Scripture. As we try to promote a better understanding of the Constitution, federalism, the separation of the branches of government, the basic rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, I think it will become evident to students that the founders had a religious motivation."
At Lowe's mention of the word, "Constitution," President Madison responded,
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
H/t Thom Hartmann, who pointed this out on his show Monday