Ben Carson, the 2016 Republican presidential candidate and Tea Party darling, told Republicans on Saturday that they shouldn’t allow the government to encroach on their religious liberties.

Carson’s comments came during the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City.

“Don’t let the secular progressives drive God out of our lives,” Carson said. “We have to stop letting them bully us. … We back down too easily. It’s an important part of who we are.”

Carson also urged Americans to reinstitute the founders’ original system where the government didn’t control the beliefs of its citizens.

“The fact of the matter is that I believe our founders set up a system that wasn’t supposed to cater to a political class,” Carson said. “It was supposed to cater to the people.”

“We’ve gotten everything confused,” Carson continued. “We’ve got to stop making everything into a political issue.”

h/t The Hill