Editor 's note : Randall Balmer , an Episcopal priest , is professor of American religious history at Barnard College , Columbia University , and a visiting professor at Emory University . His most recent book is `` God in the White House : How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W . Bush . '' Randall Balmer supports Obama 's unusual broadening of a president 's words to include nonbelievers . NEW YORK ( CNN ) -- President Obama 's mention of `` nonbelievers '' in his inaugural address represents an important broadening of the circle of acceptability in American life , an acknowledgement of our growing diversity and a fuller embrace of the principles articulated in our nation 's charter documents . One of the hallmarks of American life , dating to the 17th century , is its religious pluralism . The Atlantic seaboard during the colonial period was home to everyone from Puritans , Roman Catholics and Dutch Reformed to Quakers , Baptists , Presbyterians , Swedish Lutherans , Anglicans , Huguenots , Mennonites and Schwenckfelders . Jews arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654 , refugees from South America after the Portuguese takeover of Recifé . Somehow it all worked , especially in the crucible of religious pluralism in the Middle Colonies : New York , New Jersey and Pennsylvania , where William Penn launched his `` Holy Experiment '' of religious toleration . In the context of the New World , these religious groups learned to coexist with remarkably little conflict , and when it came time to configure the new nation , the founders in their wisdom elected not to designate any group as the state religion . `` Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof , '' the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads . This provision set up a kind of free market for religion in America , allowing religious groups to compete in a marketplace unfettered by government interference . Indeed , American history is littered with religious entrepreneurs ( to extend the economic metaphor ) who have peddled their wares in this marketplace and thereby contributed to the vigor and vitality of American religious life . The story of religion in America life has been one of expansion and ever-increasing diversity . Although Roman Catholics were present in the colonial period -- Maryland , named for the wife of Charles I , was founded by Catholics from England -- Catholics arrived in great numbers from Ireland , Germany and Italy over the course of the 19th century . Many Protestants , their hegemony threatened , resisted , sometimes with violence . Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe came as well . Most of the resistance was episodic . With notable -- albeit unfortunate -- exceptions , we Americans eventually rise to our better selves and embrace the principles of equality and toleration enshrined in our charter documents . And we can trace these changes in our rhetoric . The term `` Judeo-Christian , '' although coined late in the 19th century , became popular in the 1930s as the clouds of war were gathering in Europe . In 1955 , after World War II , when so many sons of Jewish and Catholic immigrants fought the Axis powers , sociologist Will Herberg published a book entitled `` Protestant-Catholic-Jew , '' arguing that any of these religious expressions was legitimately `` American . '' The following decade saw still more changes . The civil rights struggle brought the vibrancy of African-American religious life to national attention , and Lyndon Johnson 's signature on the Hart-Cellar Immigration Act in 1965 removed immigration quotas . In the decades since , the arrival of people from around the world , especially from South Asia and Southeast Asia , has literally recast the religious landscape of the United States . Muslim mosques , Hindu temples , Sikh Gurdwäräs and Buddhist stupas have sprouted across the nation , from cities to the countryside . And our rhetoric has evolved as well . Whereas America might once have been described as a `` Protestant '' nation and then a `` Christian '' nation ( to reflect the inclusion of Roman Catholics ) , we moved to `` Judeo-Christian '' and then `` Protestant-Catholic-Jew . '' More recently , we have talked about the `` Abrahamic Traditions , '' Jews , Christians and Muslims , thereby broadening the circle to include Islam , one of the three major monotheistic religions . Even with this broadening landscape , however , presidents have generally acknowledged only believers and failed to mention atheists or agnostics . Our rhetoric , in fact , has always lagged behind our reality . When President Obama declared , `` We are a nation of Christians and Muslims , Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers , '' he sent a signal that it 's time , once again , to enlarge the circle of inclusiveness , consistent with the great American tradition of equality and toleration . Although I 'm sure that Buddhists and Jains and Sikhs and countless other religious adherents would like to have been included in the president 's roll call , the message was clear : We are a diverse nation , and the `` free exercise '' of religion guaranteed in the First Amendment also protects the exercise of no religion at all . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Randall Balmer .
David Lewis : It 's unusual for a president to include nonbelievers in his words . He says America has widened its circle of friends for hundreds of years . Balmer says America has grown to include Jews , Muslims , Hindus . The First Amendment makes it appropriate to recognize them , he says .