Although 17 state attorney generals, including four Democrats, are defending natural marriage, in many cases attorney generals have abandoned contesting legal challenges. Executive branch withdrawal from a constitutional legal challenge in California in particular entails defeat by default, Severino noted, as the law does not allow for other parties to defend.

The move - expected to bring tens of millions of dollars to the denomination - puts the Unitarians in increasingly familiar company. Multiple religious denominations, citing everything from diminished financial resources to a need for more contemporary office space, are simultaneously downsizing and raising money by selling longtime headquarters in expensive neighborhoods.

If this sounds like paranoia, consider that even influential evangelical Christians like mega-church pastor Andy Stanley, Christianity Today editor Skye Jethani, and FOX News correspondent Kirsten Powers suggest that Christian conviction requires the faithful to accede to unconscionable acts. "What would Jesus do? I think he'd bake the cake." Powers summarizes audaciously.

Some compassion for the Dalai Lama is duly warranted. The poor guy is, at face value, a perfect vehicle for the Western ideal of a tremendously wise, compassionate, yet safely foreign master - the nearest living equivalent to Yoda from Star Wars.