The writing changes in the middle of that speel, and it becomes a Right-Wing opinion piece. Check Snopes, the Ben Stein part ends with:

"Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to."

Which was the part that actually made sense. Pretty obvious when he starts quoting Billy Graham's daughter that we have left Mr. Stein behind. I could not believe that he would be insinuating that lack of school prayer caused a hurricane, he is not that dumb.

I totally agree with the celebrity worship stuff, it infects our whole country. I think he is trying to get across that Americans worry more about Honey Boo boo than taking care of their own sh!t, which is true.