http://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-WB-54264

Evangelicals Incensed by Business Push Against ‘Religious-Freedom’ Bills

Demonstrators in Indianapolis called on the state house to roll back the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics say can be used to discriminate against gays and lesbians, on March 30.

Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

The furor over “religious-freedom” laws has split the GOP coalition wide open, and many conservative evangelical leaders don’t like the way the party is handling it.

Republican governors in Indiana and Arkansas have sought changes in their states’ legislation–which sets a legal framework that allows religious beliefs to be used as a defense in a legal dispute–to appease critics who say the measures would open the door to businesses’ discriminating against gays. A similar bill has stalled in the Republican-controlled state legislature in Georgia.

RELATED: ‘Religious Freedom’ Measures Revamped | 5 Things About Indiana’s Religious Freedom Law

Timothy Head, executive director of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, called it a “sad spectacle” to see Republicans revise or block the measures, and warned it could alienate evangelical conservatives who have been crucial to the Republican coalition in the last generation.

“If the Republican Party and its candidates expect evangelicals, faithful Catholics, and other people of faith to turn out to the polls in large numbers in 2016, they better show more political courage, skill, and moral clarity on one of the most important issues of our time,” said Mr. Head, whose group organizes evangelical conservatives.

A sign reading “This business serves everyone” is placed in the window of Bernadette’s Barbershop in Lafayette, Ind., March 31. Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mike Pence said he will “fix” a state law to make clear businesses cannot use it to deny services to same-sex couples.

Nate Chute/Reuters

The issue has pitted two powerful wings of the Republican Party against each other: Evangelical conservatives who support the measures and business leaders, many of whom believe the measures are bad for business because they smack of anti-gay intolerance.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. joined other big companies in opposing a similar bill in Georgia, saying in a Thursday statement, “We believe policies that would allow a business to refuse service to an individual based upon discrimination of any kind, does not only violate our Company’s core values, but would also negatively affect our consumers, customers, suppliers, bottling partners and associates.”

But evangelical conservatives say the measures are needed to protect their religious freedom, and they deny the intent is to foster bias. Gary Bauer, who heads the conservative Campaign for Working Families, bridles at corporate intrusion into a debate about values.

“For most of us, defending our churches and synagogues is more important than defending the Fortune 500,” said Mr. Bauer in a memo he sent to 200,000 activists around the country this week. 

The 2016 tightrope

There have long been tensions between religious conservatives and the business wing of the Republican Party, often centering on how much emphasis the GOP should put on social issues like abortion as opposed to core economic policy. The religious-liberty measures are a relatively new flash point, igniting just as potential 2016 presidential candidates are beginning to jockey for a place on the party’s political spectrum.

The imbroglio has thrust Republicans onto a political tightrope because, polls show, the religious-liberty protections are popular among GOP primary voters but less so among the broader electorate. For Republicans thinking about running for president in 2016, taking a hard line now could help win support among evangelical Christians who are influential in early-voting states like Iowa and South Carolina, but could come back to haunt them in a general-election campaign.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential 2016 candidate, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) declared their support for the Indiana’s “religious-freedom” law this week.

Associated Press

A survey by the Pew Research Center found people split almost evenly on the question of whether a wedding-service business should be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples for religious reasons, with 47% saying yes and 49% saying that it should be required to provide the services.

But among Republicans, 68% said the company should be allowed to refuse, with just 28% on the other side. White evangelicals were especially committed: with 71% supporting the right of a business to refuse customers on religious grounds. Most Republicans thinking of running for president have spoken, to different degrees, in support of religious-liberty protections.

Gay rights

Still, the issue is especially risky in general-election politics because of the rapid increase in public support for gay rights—even among Republicans.

The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found 59% of the general population supported same-sex marriage—an all-time high. Forty percent of Republicans agreed, up from 27% two years ago.

Against that backdrop, GOP pollster Whit Ayres said this week at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor that 2016 GOP candidates will need to brush up on projecting tolerance in their campaign messages.

“More than anything else,” he said, “it’s a tone and an attitude of inclusion and acceptance that Ronald Reagan articulated beautifully and that too few Republicans have articulated effectively of late.”

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