Conservative churches confront new reality on gay marriage

Moore, who fought a losing battle to keep a Ten Commandments monument he erected inside Alabama's state judicial building, said the decision went against the laws of nature.

First Amendment protections for clergy and worship are clear, leaving churches to decide who they will marry.

[...] religious liberty protections are less certain for faith-based charities, schools and hospitals that want to hire and fire based on religious beliefs.

"In one decision we've swiftly moved people from being second-class citizens to first-class," said the Rev. Neil Cazares-Thomas, who was leading Sunday's worship at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, a megachurch formed years ago as a spiritual refuge for gays.

[...] support for gay marriage is growing even within some evangelical communities, driven in part by younger generations who have gay friends and don't see opposing same-sex relationships as central to their faith.

The U.S. bishops are facing an even greater challenge within, even as they move forward as the leading religious voice advocating for legal protections for those who object to gay marriage.

In the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Va., Bishop Paul Loverde held a Mass and organized a lecture for the U.S. bishops' annual religious freedom commemoration, called Religious Liberty For How Long?