Sen. Ben Sasse tore into Beto O'Rourke after the former Texas congressman called for the taxing of churches that refuse to support gay marriage.

"This extreme intolerance is un-American. The whole point of the First Amendment is that, no matter who you love and where you worship, everyone is created with dignity and we don’t use government power to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate and which aren’t," the Nebraska Republican said Friday in a statement. "This bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Leaders from both political parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms."

During a Thursday CNN candidate forum on gay issues, O'Rourke endorsed yanking the tax-exempt status from all religious colleges, charities, and churches that did not support gay marriage.

"There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break, for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us," the Democratic presidential candidate said. "And so, as president, we’re going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans."

O'Rourke, 47, has made a name for himself in the 2020 race by taking controversial positions. During the September debate, he said "hell yes" the government will confiscate all AR-15s and AK-47s. He said recently that Trump should resign, and that he would not pardon him if he won in 2020.

