If there’s one takeaway from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s “religious freedom restoration” debacle, it’s that Republicans ignore today’s cultural environment at their peril.

Conservatives can continue to live in a bubble if they want to, but they should expect blowback, because outside that bubble is a far different reality.

Pence seems shocked by the widespread perception that his state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act invites businesses and individuals to discriminate against gay people on the grounds that serving them would, or might, infringe on the religious owners’ beliefs. But what other conclusion is there?

The law came shortly after the courts legalized gay marriage in Indiana last fall. It is more expansive than other state laws and a federal version passed 20 years ago. For example Indiana does not have civil rights protections in place for gay people. Several anti-gay activists were invited to watch Pence sign the bill. And Pence punted time after time after time on ABC’s “This Week” when asked if the new law permits discrimination against gays.

Maybe Pence simply decided to cross his fingers and hope for the best. Or maybe, cosseted in the Christian right echo chamber, he was oblivious to how all of this would be received in the wider world. Either way, his action, and its reflection on his party, is about as forward-looking as the revived Republican hostility to immigration reform. Forget about the future, it doesn’t even acknowledge the world as it exists today.

The trend is similar on immigration. Even now, despite the GOP retreat from immigration reform and its lawsuit against President Barack Obama for imposing unilateral reform through executive actions, well over half the public supports a path to citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and three-quarters support Obama’s moves to protect millions from deportation.

The Republican Party knows all this, or at least some of its leaders did when they released an after-action report on why Romney lost the 2012 election. They saw that the GOP was on a collision course with history.

By contrast, Pence seemed to be arguing his case on ABC in a historical vacuum. It was as if the last 20 years had not happened – 20 years capped by rapid advances such as gay marriage and openly gay soldiers. It was as if 2014 had not happened – a year in which Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a conservative Republican, vetoed a similar “religious freedom” bill after an outcry from businesses, advocacy groups and politicians of both parties. It was as if the last few months had not happened – months in which the same collection of interests expressed deep concerns about the prospective Indiana law.

Unless you had a mind to compete in conservative-dominated presidential primaries next year, and so far Pence is sitting out 2016, the timing could not be worse. The NCAA college basketball finals are about to begin in Indianapolis, and high school seniors are trying to decide right now whether to attend Indiana colleges and universities – or not. No wonder Indiana University felt compelled to issue its own mini Bill of Rights. Longer term, Indiana is a manufacturing state in dire need of what one analyst called “ hipster brains,” the type drawn to creative, innovative, open-minded environments. The new law will send the opposite message unless and until Indiana repeals it, or passes a strong anti-discrimination law that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.

The fundamental point here is this: Personal faith is a trump card in some instances, but it doesn’t trump equal treatment under the law.