God in America

In post-World War II era, Billy Graham (a rising evangelist) tried to inspire and persuade American people to reconsider joining some sort of religion or faith. He described the competition between faith and patriotism (in the Cold War battle) as "godless communism". He basically preached that without religion, you were a communist. Even the Presidents at the time (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon) believed that immersing oneself in religion was a big step to a better nation. Eisenhower urged Americans to go to church and stated, "Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is." At a huge rally in New York's Madison Square Garden, Vice President Richard Nixon shared the platform with Graham and reassured the audience, "I'm sure we all realize that one of the most basic reasons for American progress in the past and for our strength today is that from the time of our foundation we have had a deep and abiding faith in God." Graham managed to influence so many Americans - a record number of people flocked to houses of worship. Due to Graham's outstanding influence and status, public schools established prayers and worship inside their classrooms. This eventually caused nonbelievers and religious minorities to appeal to the US Supreme Court to question how constitutional religious expression in public schools was. At this time, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr emerged as, what seemed to be, a modern-day prophet. He called upon the entire nation to honor both biblical scriptures/teachers and the founders' democratic ideals of equal justice.