It's an interesting dilemma: Facts vs. emotions.

In my very white experience, most (white) people's ideas of the US are based on what the Declaration and the Preamble say, and not on the practical specifics of what they meant at the time to the people writing and reading them.

I mean, everyone whose education was worth a damn knows that the Constitution considered a slave 3/5 of a person for a census, but not a person otherwise.
Everyone whose education was worth a damn knows what has gone on in the name of Christ for millennia.
Everyone knows Washington and Jefferson owned slaves.
Everyone knows we killed millions of natives, and continued to do so because they had the gall to fight against our people who tried to take their land.
Everyone knows about the WWII internment camps.

Everyone whose education was worth a damn knows these things, but for many non-critical thinkers, there's a difference between stating facts and outright acknowledging them as misdeeds, or drawing parallels between our past misdeeds and someone else's present misdeeds. Most people aren't balanced enough to handle it, especially not at a Prayer Breakfast, not the most tactful place to issue this reminder.