Like fellow Religious Right activist Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Nate Kellum is citing the Pilgrims as a reason to oppose the contraceptive coverage mandate for employers:

As we sat down and enjoyed our traditional Thanksgiving meals, many of us remembered the Pilgrims’ quest for religious liberty. We considered how they came to this new country at great sacrifice, seeking the freedom to practice their religion. But this noble quest is not just part of our history. The freedom to live according to faith is still being pursued today. This quest is reflected in recent legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, which forces Christian employers to supply insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs or face enormous and business-killing fines and penalties. Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear and resolve this vitally important issue.

While saying that for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby have First Amendment-protected religious beliefs is one thing, the legend of the Pilgrims going to the New World to search for religious freedom is a myth, especially considering that the Pilgrims helped establish a virtual theocracy that persecuted dissenters.

Historian Kenneth C. Davis writes in Smithsonian: