There are and always will be conflict between laws and beliefs. In general, our religious and ethical beliefs provide a more active, comprehensive, and compelling guide for navigating them than any legal framework. Our laws secure rights and protect liberties. But in general, we should be as deferential to religious freedom as we can.
Judging religious liberty claims in accordance with preferred partisan and political outcomes is bad politics and bad citizenship. It seems to me that this issue should cut across party lines, because religious freedom is fundamentally a Western/American/fundamental value, not a Democratic or Republican platform plank. And remember, progressives can embrace religious liberty for their own causes.
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