The really interesting thing is, what might the Hindu have meant by 'god'? To whom did this person think (s)he was praying? As long as Americans concentrate on the 'church and state' questions on the one hand or on the 'one nation' issues they will ignore these real questions.

That, I guess, comes from the Deistic background in which it is assumed that 'god' is univocal, whereas precisely in Hinduism that is far from being the case. I have a sense -- which I see in spades on this side of the Atlantic as well! -- of people taking great care not to ask the 'god' question, perhaps in case the cat gets let out of the bag, i.e. that people might start realizing that the Christian claim is that we only really discover who the true God is when we look long and hard at Jesus himself.

The whole 'Jesus Seminar' movement was an exercise in making it harder to do that, making it less likely that people would glimpse the shocking and deeply challenging true Jesus and true God (while, of course, claiming all the while that theirs was the truly radical Jesus and God...).

A genuine conversation about what 'god' means, between a well thought out Christian and a well thought out Hindu, would be a great start. And we might discover that the word 'prayer' actually changed its meaning, too, according to what sort of god you think you're praying to.