It could be said that an invocation of a deity at the end of a speech has as much meaning as at the end of a sneeze. "It's just an expression," with perhaps the underlying cynical motive of attracting potential voters who take such invocations seriously; conversely, to not lose those same voters by omitting the expression.

As a person of some faith, albeit not Christian, I often go through periods of feeling threatened by modern militant Christianity -- especially when its adherents try to censor what's taught in the public schools (I reacted the same way when I considered myself an atheist, too). I find it interesting to note that, of the world's major religions, only Christianity and Islam encourage conversion of the heathen, ofttimes "at swordpoint", as if coercion by violence were as acceptable to God as a sincere change of heart after serious study and requests for guidance.

I take some comfort in the historical view that such waves of militance are just that: waves. They come and go. This is not to diminish the horror of former cycles -- such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Counter-Reformation, Naziism and Stalinism -- but to understand that we humans are actually capable of re-learning how not to behave.

This is also not to say that "it can't happen here". It can happen anywhere. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. That includes religious liberty, in a land where freedom from religion should be as important as freedom of religion.