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Conservatives brace for

(CNN) With its ivy covered entrance and Teddy Bear bouquets, Arlene's Flowers seems an unlikely spot to trigger a culture war skirmish.

Until recently, the Richland, Washington, shop was better known for its artistic arrangements than its stance on same sex marriage.

But in March, Barronelle Stutzman, the shop's 68 year old proprietress, refused to provide wedding flowers for a longtime customer who was marrying his partner. Washington state legalized same sex marriage in December.

An ardent evangelical, Stutzman said she agonized over the decision but couldn't support a wedding that her faith forbids.

"I was not discriminating at all," she said. "I never told him he couldn't get married. I gave him recommendations for other flower shops."

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson disagreed, and filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Arlene's Flowers. The ACLU also sued on behalf of the customer, Robert Ingersoll, who has said Stutzman's refusal "really hurt, because it was someone I knew."

Among conservative Christians, Stutzman has become a byword part cautionary tale and part cause celebre.

Websites call her a freedom fighter. Tributes fill Arlene's Facebook page. Donations to her legal defense fund pour in from as far away as Texas and Arkansas.

"For some reason, her case has made a lot of people of faith worry," said Stutzman's lawyer, Dale Schowengerdt of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group.

Those anxieties have only increased, conservative Christians say, since the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and opened the door to gay marriage in California.

Taking a line from Justice Antonin Scalia sharp dissent, Southern Baptist scholar Albert Mohler said it's only a matter of time the other shoe drops and the high court legalizes same sex marriage from coast to coast.

"Christians will have to think hard and fast about these issues and our proper response," Mohler wrote on Wednesday.

"We UGG Boots Clearance Sale Women will have to learn an entire new set of missional skills as we seek to remain faithful to Christ in this fast changing culture."

His fellow Southern Baptist Russell Moore put the matter more succinctly.

"Same sex marriage is coming to your community."

The debate is over before the Supreme Court's rulings, many conservative Christians said they saw the writing or the poll numbers on the wall.

Survey after survey shows increasing support for same sex marriage, especially among young Americans. That includes many religious believers.

Most Catholics and mainline Protestants, not to mention many Jews, support same sex relationships, according to surveys. The bells of Washington National Cathedral pealed in celebration on Thursday.

Even among those who oppose gay marriage, many think it's a losing battle.

Seventy percent of white evangelicals believe that legal recognition for gay nuptials is inevitable, according to a June poll by the Pew Research Center, though just 22 percent favor it. "Statistically, all the numbers move in one direction."

Young Christians have grown up in a far more diverse UGG Bailey Button Triplet Clearance culture than their forebears, Merritt noted, and many have befriended gays and lesbians.

Pew found that more than 90 percent of Americans overall personally know someone who is gay or lesbian, a 30 percent increase since 1993.

"It's far easier to wage war against an agenda than it is to battle a friend," Merritt said.

At the same time, many conservative young Christians say they're weary of the culture wars, and of seeing their communities labeled "judgmental."

When Christian researchers at the Barna Group asked Americans aged 16 29 what words best describe Christianity, the top response was "anti homosexual." That was true of more than 90 percent of non Christians and 80 percent of churchgoers, according to Barna.

Tired of being told the country is slouching toward Gomorrah, many young Christians have simply tuned out the angry prophets of earlier generations, UGG Classic Short Clearance evangelical leaders say.

"The shrill angry voices of retrenchment are no longer getting a broad hearing either in the culture at large or in the evangelical community," Merritt said.

But the battle over same sex marriage is far from over, saidBrian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage.
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