That, in historical terms, was a win.

From “One Nation Over God” by Wes Crawford

Above all, America became a playground for religious diversity. Christians started churches in barns, in log cabins, and occasionally in taverns. Worship might happen with a hymnal or a fiddle. Sometimes worship occurred in silence, and at other times (and in other locations) it included shouting. Without a centralized religious authority, preachers and movements popped up everywhere. It seems that everyone was starting a new church, reporting new visions, publishing tracts, and establishing their own religious journals. America hadn’t yet formalized its religious liberty into law. Still, it was already being practiced in messy and unpredictable ways throughout the colonies.

So, when the time finally came to draft a national government, the big questions loomed: With all this religious variety, what was the federal government supposed to do? We’ll get to that soon. What is clear is that colonial America proved that diverse religious beliefs could coexist. Not perfectly. Not peacefully all the time. But functionally. People could live next door to someone with wildly different beliefs, work together, and agree not to burn each other’s meetinghouses down. That, in historical terms, was a win.