Last week I attended a regular meeting at a government agency I work with, looking forward to a great breakfast. Unfortunately, apparently on short notice, the sumptuous breakfast sandwiches catered by Chick-fil-A for the past two years were replaced with soggy sausage rolls well past their prime. The chicken culture wars have come home to roost. I guess it was just too controversial for government to patronize a company whose founder favors traditional marriage.

I always knew it would come to this. As a conscientious objector in the culture wars, over the years I’ve written columns for several newspapers proposing same sex marriage in the public sphere while allowing religious institutions the freedom to opt out. I want to give gays and lesbians the opportunity to marry and divorce, but must Villanova hold same sex marriages in the chapel to get NSF funding and Pell grants, without which no university can survive? Must we force religious institutions to choose between their sacred beliefs and continued existence? With a little creativity, can’t we craft policies protecting both LBGT rights and religious rights?