ATLANTA — The Rev. Wayne Cofield says he’ll sit in a jail cell before he presides over a same-sex wedding.

He would rather have Georgia’s legal protection in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that gays and lesbians can marry. But, he said, he will follow his convictions.

“I would never — no matter what it cost — perform a same-sex marriage. Never,” said Cofield, pastor at Whitfield Baptist Church in Dalton, Georgia.

While it seems unlikely that Cofield will end up in handcuffs — or that a gay couple would ask him to officiate at their wedding — he and other religious conservatives say they no longer feel safe to express and act on their convictions.

Some, including Cofield, say they feel exposed to activists who may test them.

Their fears intensified when Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a religious liberty bill amid opposition from prominent businesses and filmmakers, including Salesforce and Disney, that threatened to pull out of Georgia if the bill became law.

“I do not think that we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia,” Deal said at a press conference last week.

Rather, Deal said “borrowed protections” from the First Amendment are strong enough to shield those whose beliefs clash with same-sex marriage.

That offered little comfort to Cofield.

“The Supreme Court took that ‘borrowed protection’ away from us,” he said.

Rev. Wayne Robertson, who pastors Morningside Baptist Church in Valdosta, Georgia, said he also fears that anything is now possible, whether it’s being punished for not solemnizing a same-sex marriage or for what he may say from the pulpit.

“I’m not really confident of anything with the current climate,” he said. “We are, in the words of one, now becoming a nation that slouches toward Sodom.”

That’s why he believes additional safeguards are needed — and not just for ministers. No one with “moral conviction” should be left out, he said.

A bill that passed both chambers of the Legislature late in the just-ended session would have offered some of the protections he and others sought.

It would have made clear that clergy members may refuse to officiate at same-sex weddings, and that individuals could not be compelled to attend.

Also, the bill shielded churches and religious organizations from being forced to allow events they deem “objectionable” on their property.

These groups potentially could have made hiring and firing decisions based on an employee’s beliefs and practices and also denied services to someone if doing so violated their beliefs, unless a government contract indicated otherwise.

Anti-discrimination language was added in an attempt to address concerns, but it did nothing to quiet opponents — including some in the faith community.

The Rev. James Lamkin, pastor at Northside Drive Baptist Church in Atlanta, was among those who praised Deal for vetoing the bill.

Lamkin said the bill isn’t necessary and would only “make this delicate issue more cloudy.”

“Religious freedom doesn’t mean freedom to discriminate in the name of religion,” Lamkin said in a statement.

Robust religious freedom, he added, is “already woven into the First Amendment and the fabric of our community, and it is done so by the threads of responsibility, fairness, and equality.”

But down in Moultrie, Georgia, the Rev. Wayne Woods said he does not believe the bill’s specific and clearly drawn parameters would have allowed for discrimination.

That oft-voiced concern, he said, is part of a false narrative that was allowed to dominate the debate.

“I don’t agree with some people’s lifestyle choices, but I hope they understand that I still value them as a human being,” said Woods, pastor at First Baptist Church in Moultrie. “I still believe that they have rights equal to what rights I have as a citizen of the United States.”

He’s among those who are concerned, though, that his constitutional rights are not what they once were.

That is why he thinks protections are needed — beyond the Pastor Protection Act, which unanimously passed the House before other religious liberty measures were added to it.

That initial bill sought to guard pastors and churches who want nothing to do with same-sex marriage. Had that version passed both chambers, Deal says he would have signed it.

But Woods said he considered it a “copout” that stopped short of the day-to-day protections needed for all people of faith.

“What I hear people say now is, you can say whatever you want to behind the doors of your church, but when you go out into the community, you’re to shut up,” he said. “To me, that’s not what our constitution guarantees in regard to religious liberties.”

After a brief effort to rally support to reconvene the Legislature and override Deal’s veto, religious-liberty proponents are instead turning to next January, when lawmakers return to Atlanta.

“Nothing has been settled,” said Paul Smith, director of the religious advocacy group Citizen Impact. “This veto does not settle this issue.”

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.