The war for the soul and the government of America needs more Christian soldiers.

That was the message delivered Thursday night to about 100 attendees of the "Hope for America Rally" at Penn Forest Worship Center in Southwest Roanoke County.

"America is on the verge of destruction," the Rev. Rick Scarborough told the crowd in a booming Baptist sermon.

"You, beloved, are the hope," he said.

Scarborough is a well-known Texas minister and conservative political activist with ties to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and several key Republican lawmakers.

In 1992, the firebrand evangelist waged a high-profile battle over sex education in Texas schools and has written several books arguing against the separation of church and state.

Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University School of Law, also spoke.

Sponsored by Atlanta, Ga.-based Let Freedom Ring, Thursday's rally was the first of several that are planned across Virginia. Others have been held in or are scheduled to be held in North Carolina and Georgia. Scarborough is expected to speak at many of them.

Let Freedom Ring is affiliated with Jody Hice, a pastor and conservative Christian radio personality in Atlanta and an adherent to the "Christian worldview."

Let Freedom Ring preaches that America was founded by Christian leaders and that the country's freedoms are based on biblical precepts. In its view secular values, such as the separation of church and state, abortion rights, radical feminism and gay rights, have spurred a moral and political decline that Christians must battle, not just in the pews, but in the political sphere.

Not all Christians agree with this interpretation of the "Christian worldview," however.

"On a purely practical level, government neutrality about religion is most helpful for everyone," said Barry Lynn, a United Church of Christ minister and director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Lynn contradicts the premise that America was founded on Christian values. Groups such as Let Freedom Ring "preach a false history ...the Ten Commandments were not the basis for our Constitution. There's no evidence to support that," Lynn said.

"It's very important that people realize that just because Christians are the majority today, they may not always be the majority.

"It's very dangerous, and it's proven to be disastrous" across the world when religion gets too cozy with government, Lynn said.

The message preached by Let Freedom Ring is not new, said Bob Benne, director of the Roanoke College Center for Religion and Society.

This movement "is what has been known as the religious right," Benne said. "It is a response to major changes in our society that are disturbing to many conservative religious people."

Beginning with the Roe v. Wade and abortion rights and controversies over prayer in public schools and culminating today in the battle over same-sex marriage, Benne said, conservative Christians see their values under siege.

"This is pushback," he said.

Aaron Evans, a former Fox News radio producer from Martinsville, organized the Roanoke rally with help from The Family Foundation and other conservative Christian groups.

Scarborough preached to the crowd about the dangers of loosening sexual mores. He warned that gay rights legislation could be used to silence pastors who preach that homosexuality is a sin.

"In my lifetime, we have gone from 'Ozzie and Harriet' and 'Leave it to Beaver' ... to 'Sex in the City' and 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.'

"We've gone from spin the bottle to hooking up in the eighth grade," he said.

But, Scarborugh preached, "this nation can be saved if pastors would just understand how much God wants to save it."