Hitchens introduction to HPL's atheist writings

[Matthias M.]

Maybe a strange question, but due to my German background, I need help for my understanding of a sentence from the introduction to Joshi's 'Against Religion - The atheist writings of H. P. Lovecraft'. There one can read: "Some people truly are Protestant atheists. I would myself hold out for everyone to be a non-sectarian unbeliever even though debates with the faithful have left me with ever-diminishing respect for those who demand or expect the impossible." I just can't get his conclusion. Who can explain this sentence to me? Where is the connection from the first part of the sentence to the second? How does the second part led him to the conclusion that he would himself hold out for everyone to be a non-sectarian unbeliever? Thanks in advance for the help.