WASHINGTON — Across the country, among people of all ages and religions, the acceptance of same-sex marriage has grown with stunning speed. But not in the leadership of the Republican Party.

There is a striking unanimity among the candidates who are running for the party’s presidential nomination in 2016: Not one supports allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry. And after the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to marriage for all couples, regardless of their sexual orientation, the degree of difference among the candidates was largely a matter of how aggressively they would continue to resist.

Many pledged to fight on, using language that was both biblical and bellicose, framing the debate over marriage rights as a choice between surrender and retreat, between the divine and the profane. Others vowed to keep the debate alive in a more measured and indirect way, by advocating for the rights of Christians and others who worry the ruling could force them to violate their religious beliefs.

But either way, the clash over same-sex marriage seems likely to smolder well into the 2016 primary season, despite the hopes of many less hard-line Republicans that a Supreme Court decision would allow the party finally to move past one of the most divisive aspects of the culture wars.