In a speech last year to the Stillwater Christian School in Kalipsell, Montana, Ben Carson declared that the “biggest issue” facing the U.S. today is that “we have abandoned God.”

At the end of a speech filled with broad platitudes about patriotism and how, until only recently, the U.S. upheld Judeo-Christian values, Carson implored that “we need to bring spirituality back to this country.”

“It was our Judeo-Christian values that allowed this to be an exceptional country, that allowed us to move forward so incredibly quickly and as we abandon God, you can see that we are spiraling downward just as quickly,” he said.