Jeb Bush says the president should be a role model in many ways, including in terms of faith.

Bush told several hundred attendees at a faith forum at conservative Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C. on Friday that he was brought to tears watching relatives of the Charleston church shooting forgive the accused gunman during his televised arraignment last summer.

The former Florida governor had flown into Charleston the night of the June 17 shootings for a campaign stop but rescheduled his events after the tragedy. Bush says President Barack Obama has many talents but that being a leader of faith isn’t one of them.

He says too often public officials shy away from publicly discussing their own religion and says that’s not what America should be about, calling the ability to discuss differences and beliefs “the whole point of the American experience.”

(AP)