The real danger is that the states are writing theses laws in such a way that they never actually spell out the precise issue that they think that a business owner's religious beliefs would be in conflict with since it they did that would bring even more heat down on them so they leave that up to the people that it's being written to 'protect' to decide. Of course, while everyone assumes that these laws are aimed at the LGBT community, since the laws are NOT specific they could be used to discriminate against virtually ANYONE for any number of reasons since when one looks at the prohibitions in JUST the Old Testament alone you could make a case against a lot of situations.
Everyone thinks this would only apply say for a wedding cake shop not wanting to business with same-sex couple. Well what about a mixed-race couple? The Bible was used for years to justify the anti-miscegenation laws in this country. And what about a shop owner who decides to not serve Muslims or how about denying service to a known atheist or to a couple who are living out of wedlock or perhaps have simply remarried after one or the other were divorced. Once you bring 'religious beliefs' into the equation, where do you draw the line? And which 'religious beliefs' are you going to use for the foundation of the law? How would a community feel if some corporation owned/managed by a group of Muslims decide to apply Shir-ia law in their business dealings? Or an Orthodox Jew who refused to allow men and women in his shop at the same time?
Now you know why our Founding Fathers went so far out of their way to separate religion and religious tests from our public society and governing bodies. It's incompatible with living in an open and equality base society since one of the 'sins' of virtually ALL religions is that the extremists in whatever religion you wish to look at can make a case for why some people are NOT equal to others. That's just the was it is and so we have to remove that threat from society in general and keep it our of our public lives. What you do behind the doors of your own house or gathering place, that's one thing, but when you open your doors to the public and offer a service to the community, you have to leave you prejudices, religious or otherwise, outside the back door.
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