Apparently, in the 930 days since Barack Obama became president, the United States has slipped into a dangerous agnosticism, if not outright atheism.

“Father, our heart breaks for America,” he said, leading the crowd in a prayer. “We see discord at home, we see fear in the marketplace, we see anger in the halls of government. As a nation, we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness. We pray for our nation’s leaders, for parents, for pastors, for generals, for governors, that you would inspire them.”

Although the event featured a litany of speakers, there was one clear message: America has strayed from its Christian past, and needs to return to its faith in Jesus to successfully overcome its challenges.

When Christian right-wingers say that America has “strayed,” I always wonder what era they believe we more closely hewed to Christian ideals.

Surely not at the founding, when human beings were routinely raped, beaten, murdered and traded as property. Surely not during the Civil War, when over half a million Americans were killed over the issue of human bondage. Surely not after the Civil War, when Native Americans were slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands. Surely not during the age of the Robber Barons, when children worked cruel hours in filthy factories, the American west was a region of mass lawlessness, drinking and prostitution and the railroads made slaves out of Chinese immigrants.

And even before FDR ruined everything with his New Deal and repeal of Prohibition, you had a murderous domestic terrorist organization roaming the countryside, Jim Crow, mass poverty and illiteracy, the rise of organized crime, etc.

Now it’s certainly true that today in America we’ve got a vast concentration of wealth at the top and record numbers of children on food stamps — both of which explicitly go against the teachings of Jesus — but I don’t think that’s what they were lamenting at “The Response.”

In any event, you don’t seem to hear much about America “straying” when a Republican is in the White House.