"We believe that the majority of the Court will rule in favor of elevating what we have always taught to be a sinful lifestyle to the stature of a civil right -- forcing us to choose between their ruling and our religious convictions that are based on Scripture," said Rick Scarborough, a former Southern Baptist minister who now heads Vision America Action.

Enter a local TV reporter who perhaps noticed the sign with the Bible verse on it and smelled an opportunity. Although the family had not been active in the debate over Indiana's new law, ABC57 reporter Alyssa Marino said she "just walked into their shop and asked how they feel." They would happily serve gays but wouldn't cater a gay ceremony? Time to unleash the hounds of hell.

In an article in The Conversation, an academic at the University of Kent, Dr Mike Thomas, reported on how happy gay couples in the UK, the United States and Canada feel after tying the knot. He found that most of them welcomed the benefits that legal recognition of their relationship gave them.

But this was not matched by social recognition. Even though the majesty of the law shone upon them, relatives often shunned them and snubbed them.

We have excellent systems for managing risk, identifying threats, forestalling disaster. But while we know how to deal with people "going bad" in particular concrete ways, we do not know how to make people want to be good. We no longer have a shared concept of virtue despite depending on the virtue of others to greater or lesser degrees in nearly every aspect of communal life.