Behind the mad rush of two Republican governors to amend state legislation guaranteeing citizens religious liberty is a simpler — and more momentous— issue.
You have likely entered a business establishment and encountered a sign, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” Well, of course. You own the establishment and you can determine who uses or does not use your goods and services. You don’t even have to give a reason. Haberdashers are free to exclude the homeless; Muslim donut shops are free to exclude donut-devouring Christians; Gerry’s Gay Bars are free to exclude heterosexual swingers; the Skinheads Tattoo Parlor is free to exclude hippies, Jews and Blacks; and the Porterhouse Men’s Club is free to exclude women. Understand: adding religious liberty to the equation need not supply a layer of legal unassailability. That’s because this isn’t fundamentally about religious liberty. It’s about liberty, which the Left now knows nothing about.
The reason conservatives today are finding it hard to combat the liberal arguments prohibiting the exercise of religious liberty is that for 30 years, propelled by the determination not to appear intolerant, they’ve lined up supporting liberal arguments prohibiting the exercise of liberty. They have buckled under the pressure to endorse the coercive restriction of liberty for businesses to decide who their clients are. Now they want to draw the line at religious liberty. But religious liberty is a species of liberty. You don’t get to insist on religious liberty to the exclusion of liberty.
It was the devout Christian, Patrick Henry, who famously uttered “Give me liberty or give me death.” He didn’t mean only religious liberty. The principled response of Christians to the current spasm of coercive egalitarian madness is, therefore, the demand for liberty.
Religious liberty will then take care of itself.
Christian Culture 
Ah, thank you very much for writing this. I also like the following quote:
“That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — “That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.” – Henry David Thoreau
What strikes me most is “when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”
It is our responsibility as individuals to create for ourselves a society that can so successfully govern itself that government is no longer necessary.
Clearly, that’s an ultimate end of a spectrum that will never be met, but it’s a goal we can strive towards and make progress towards.