Post-Americans may have "evolved" on the matter of distorting the definition of marriage, but they don't go for persecuting Christians to achieve it

An encouraging finding:

support for same-sex marriage rights is not the same thing as support for the trampling the religious convictions that lead millions to believe that gay marriage is a sin and should be opposed. In Oregon, a local bakery could be forced to pay a $150,000 fine after the business’s owners were found guilty of discrimination following their refusal to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2013. According to a new survey, a majority of Americans believe that is an injustice. 

While finding that Americans narrowly favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry, a new Associated Press-GfK poll also shows most believe wedding-related businesses should be allowed to deny service to same-sex couples for religious reasons.

Roughly half the country also thinks local officials and judges with religious objections ought to be exempt from any requirement that they issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, according to the poll.

That view of the same-sex marriage issue echoes that of the Mormon church. Last week, the church called on state legislatures to pass new laws that protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination but also to protect the rights of those who assert their religious beliefs.

According to that AP/GfK poll, conducted from January 29 to February 2 of 1,045 adults, 57 percent of the public believes that Americans offering wedding-related services should be legally allowed to refuse service to gay couples if it would violate their religious convictions. That same poll also found that a plurality, 44 percent, back the right of gay couples to marry in their home state while 39 percent oppose that right. 

Interestingly, AP/GfK found that the nation is evenly split at 48 to 48 percent on whether the Supreme Court should decide once and for all whether denying same-sex couples the right to wed constitutes discrimination.

Does the push toward redefining marriage inevitably find itself at loggerheads with not only the right of Christians to conduct business according to the tenets of their faith, but the obvious Judeo-Christian underpinnings of American culture?

Probably, and a SCOTUS decision one way or the other probably won't stave that off.