“at the first sign of disaster, they will ... run into an abandoned church and ask for God’s mercy.”
After 9-11 this happened briefly.
There you go. But, once the "all clear" signal sounded and any future threat of attack was removed, life returned to normal. Up until now, the US has been difficult to attack. With the arrival of long range missiles in Korea and the expansion of nuclear arms in the middle east, we are a prime target.