Gay rights and religious liberty: Can Americans have both?

(The Christian Science Monitor) The recent backlash against “religious accommodation” laws in Indiana and Arkansas is evidence of an increasingly bitter confrontation that is dividing the country and threatens to diminish the scope of religious liberty in America.

That is the conclusion of a number of scholars and experts who are urging the United States Supreme Court to consider this confrontation when it hears oral argument on April 28 in a potential landmark case involving same-sex marriage.

On one side are gay couples who are seeking the full benefits of equal treatment and dignity in a society that has long forced them into second-class status, or substantially worse.