Columnist Rogers, in his recent opinion piece titled “Extremism is just a point of view” mistakenly conflates the views of some with views of all. Granted, there are radical secularists who believe that religion itself is a plague, but there is a far greater number of secularists who view religion as a legitimate moral tool for others and accept it as a way that others choose to live.

The general trend of history has been one of pluralism, of different cultures and viewpoints learning to live together in peace. Non-radical, rational secularists want exactly what non-radical, rational religious people want — a society in which everyone is accepted and where anyone can live in the way that they choose to live. All that articles like this do is create more hate between groups and further separate our already dangerously polarized nation.

The term “extremist,” as it is used in the political lexicon today, refers to those who use their beliefs to justify horrendous acts of violence. You claim that “an extremist is simply anyone who has an unpopular opinion,” and then continue to say that secularists view all religious people as extremists. Not only is this a categorical mistake, this is simply not true.

Political secularists do not wish that we do away with all religion, they wish that we create a nation in which all religious people and non-religious people are treated with equality. We should not single out and generalize any group as bad, further polarizing our already divided nation. Political polarization has left our nation in a state of political paralysis that, as we have seen, has been deadly for the middle, working class. We should strive to bring together religious and non-religious people to a political community of mutual acceptance and then work to further the ends of all Americans.