The statement "religion is a crutch for weak people" may be interesting to discuss but it's not exactly what
Ventura said. The exact
quote is:
Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who
need strength in numbers. It tells people to go
out and stick their noses in other people's business.
Ventura is asserting that "organized religion" is intrusive. That's a pretty broad statement. I'll guess that it's a matter of attention: the churches that aren't intrusive don't get your attention, therefore it probably seems (at least to him) that they all are intrusive. I'll also guess that the religious groups that a state governor deals with are even more annoying that the ones I run into in airports and malls.
See? People can use bad survey data without using statistics!