The History of Prayer in America

Although it was never referred to as any type of formal religion, the Native Americans often prayed for all sorts of reasons. They gave thanks for the rising of the sun, for the earth, for healing, for safe travel and for life itself. However when things became too intense they would turn to a Shaman (someone who would intervene on their behave to the spiritual world), much the same way as a pastor or minister does today.

Our nation was founded by those who sought God's guidance and blessing. Prayer was a part of every important decision in establishing this new nation. In the early centuries of America, the Christian religion and the Bible were found in the majority of homes, civil institutions, schools and the political sphere.
Due to the faith of our founding fathers, the unanimous passage of the bill for a National Day of Prayer has been implemented by the President of the United States every year since 1975. This signifies that prayer is as important to our nation today as it was in the beginning. As a matter of fact prayer actually has a close relationship to the advancement of civilization in our history.

One might say that Americans started out with Christianity and religion but have since somewhat deserted their christian roots. Throughout the decades the U.S. Supreme Court has made decisions misinterpreting the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment to mean "religion shall be totally separate from the state....", thus God, prayer, and the Bible have been banned from educational institutions. Although prayer and religion began before civilization and played an extremely important part of our nation's growth, prayer can only be taught in literature class or history class.