History has taught us again and again what happens when people decide intolerance is acceptable or even righteous because “God hates certain things.”
We’re hosting an event in Philadelphia today, called America Beyond 250: Reclaiming the Promise of Pluralism.
It’s a fitting time and place to have such a vital conversation — in this, the 250th year of our nation’s independence, and in the city that embodied so many revolutionary thinkers and ideas, including William Penn, a champion of pluralism and tolerance, who once wrote:
I deplore two principles in religion: obedience upon authority without conviction and destroying them that differ with me for Christ’s sake.
Philly, the cradle of American civil liberties and the city of brotherly love, has never fully achieved its founder’s vision. Then again, neither has our country…
A hop, skip, and an Ohio away, Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith is proving just how much work is still ahead of us. In April, the pastor/politician went viral for calling a high school marching band’s rendition of Carmen “demonic filth.” Why? Something about “a seductive witch,” of course.
He then pleaded with Indiana parents to “use the VOUCHERS and get your kids OUT of our Indiana public schools… Their futures and their lives depend on it!”
He’s since repeatedly, unapologetically hurled his own hate at Muslims and encouraged other Americans to do so, saying:
“I am going to call on others to hate [Islam], because I hate Islam. It is a death cult. Now I love Muslims, because they make great Christians when Jesus gets a hold of them, but I hate Islam. And we need to be okay with hating again.”
And, “On the close of Eid, after much prayer and consideration… I would like [sic] take this opportunity to wish all Muslims in Indiana the best. And by best I mean I hope you all become Christian.”
Unsurprisingly, his rhetoric isn’t confined to Muslims.
Exactly one year ago today, Beckwith (or rather Beckwith’s chatbot) wrote that Pride Month “isn’t about tolerance” but “The Rainbow Beast Is Coming For Your Kids!” and linked to an anonymous essay on the Christian Independent Press website that calls support for LGBTQ+ rights “a well-dressed pagan bacchanal” and “ritual pagan child sacrifice.”
This is the same man who called the Three-Fifths Compromise “a great move.”
The same elected official and self-described Christian Nationalist who believes that abortion rights invoke the “Jezebel spirit,” that the state should “monitor and control what is taught” at public schools and universities, and that good citizens “love Christ.”
So, why rehash all the thickheaded things this guy’s said?
Because history has taught us again and again what happens when people like Beckwith decide intolerance is acceptable or even righteous because “God hates certain things.” And because if an ideology that says Muslims, LGBTQ+ people, women, and people of color don’t belong isn’t abhorrent enough, I assure you they don’t think we atheists are A-OK.
When a reporter asked Beckwith how Sharia Law, which he so often rails against, differs from codifying a Christian worldview into law, he responded: “Because we’re rooted in a long-standing historical tradition of Christian values… So if you’re a Muslim and you want to take part in this governance, okay, fine, but you check your Muslim values at the door and you submit to the values of the longstanding historical tradition of the United States, which are the Constitutional values which are rooted in Judeo Christian ethic.”
In other words: Freedom and power for me, assimilation and subjugation for thee.
As White Christian Nationalists like Beckwith insist Christianity is under siege, they simultaneously demand everyone else conform to their theology. They invoke freedom while arguing that Muslims, queer people, women, and anyone outside their movement should have less of it. They cry “propaganda” while working to impose their views in public classrooms. And they claim persecution even as they seek special privileges under the law.
But the principle of religious pluralism is no threat to America, it is America. Ours is a country that was never intended to belong to one creed but to all of them and none. That’s why we’re gathering today in Philadelphia and next month in California — to push back against the dangerous, “destroy them that differ” demagogues and to imagine a more inclusive and democratic future.
250 years later, the Founders’ promise is far from finished, but it is still ours to claim.
In solidarity,
Melina Cohen
Director of Strategic Communications & Policy Engagement
People often ask us atheists what we believe in. I believe in this team. Because these data don’t lie:
The 2026 state legislative session was the most productive year in American Atheists’ 63-year history. In some cases, we saw 100% success rates.
Small-d democratic movements like ours aim to fill every seat, but White Christian Nationalists don’t need to. For their anti-democratic agenda to succeed, they only have to normalize their narrative that our country belongs more to some people than to others.
The Founders weren’t hostile to religion. They were opposed to tyranny, and they understood a government powerful enough to impose one creed is likewise powerful enough to punish anyone outside it. I’d argue Christian Nationalists also understand this but they actually like the idea of religious tyranny so long as they’re the ones in charge.
