Well, I don't defend the discrimination so much as I find the punishment to be excessive for the offense.
You just have to defend the ability to discriminate, not the discrimination. And guess what? That makes you the enemy of most of the harder core lefties on this site. congrats.
Maybe so. But, there were people in the 60s who were not racists, but who sincerely believed that provisions of civil rights laws that compelled private behavior and altered the premise of one person one vote would prove counterproductive for society. Imo, time has proven them right. I'm not at all convinced that PA laws and gay rights will not have some similar effect.
Jesus was probably going to be nailed to a tree by the Romans regardless of anything he said to the priests during his trial by the Sanhedrin, but aside from tossing the money lenders from the Temple, Jesus compelled no one to do anything. Rather, he persuaded via morality.