The 2015 Supreme Court decision extending the right to marry to same-sex adult couples contained a ticking time bomb. Six years later, the noise is getting loud. The explosive material has to do with religious freedom. While polls clearly show that a growing majority of Americans support marriage equality, a significant number of religious people continue to believe that same-sex marriage and other evolving understandings of gender and sexuality are transgressions against God’s law. But how can their dissent be lawfully expressed? The five-vote majority in 2015 papered over this question by insisting the ruling applied only to civil marriage — and thus posed no burden on the right of religions to choose which marriages to bless. As we’ve learned since, however, sanctifying marriages is not the only way religion enters this picture. You may remember Jack Phillips, baker, and his Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo. Phillips is a devout conservative Christian who sees his work as an expression of talents given to him by God. Therefore, he chooses not to sell products that he believes to be offensive to God. He doesn’t do Halloween cakes, for example — and he doesn’t do wedding cakes to celebrate same-sex unions. […]
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