Many of the founding fathers had no truck with institutionalized religion at all. A number (more than "a few") were Deists who essentially believed in a creator-God who set things in motion and then went away. The long and the short of it is that America was a product of Enlightenment thinking, and while religion was certainly involved, Enlightenment ideas about religion wouldn't be particularly palatable to the fundamentalists who are pushing this stuff.
If schoolchildren are going to be taught about about the faith of Patrick Henry (and I agree they should be), they'd better hear about Franklin's Deism and Jefferson and Paine's opposition to all forms of organized religion as well. In fact, I might even go along with the Reconstructionist jokers if the end result was that everyone had to read The Age of Reason in history class.
I really agree with this, Dave. It's why it's ironic that fundamentalist Christians are pushing for something to be taught that didn't exist the way they think it did. I do think the importance of faith in the founding of this nation gets downplayed nowadays, though. It's just that it wasn't the only guiding force, as some would try to claim.
For heaven's sake, what moves nations? Money. Lofty ideals are great, as long as they make you wealthier.
(Okay, that was cynical.)
On a less cynical note, many of the first Europeans to colonize America did come for religious reasons. I just would be surprised if they would've fought for religious freedom as we know it today, i.e., including other faiths besides Christianity. They wanted freedom from the Church of England, yes, but they also often fought with other Christian denominations here in America.