ATLANTA — A measure seeking to reassure clergy in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage won widespread support in the state House of Representatives on Thursday. The Pastor Protection Act, one of at least a half dozen religious liberty bills pending in the Legislature, passed without opposition.

“I think that’s a testimony that the bill doesn’t hurt anybody,” said Rep. Steve Tarvin, R-Chickamauga.

The House vote followed passionate pleas from lawmakers, including a rare floor speech by House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who first backed the Pastor Protection Act last year. The bill protects pastors and houses of worship from legal repercussions for refusing to marry gay and lesbian couples or allow them to wed on church grounds.

Ralston and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, said they have been fielding calls from concerned clergy who were not confident that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would shield them.

Those concerns, Ralston said, “arise out of a struggle to understand how state legislative determinations can be cast aside by judicial fiat on the most fundamental of issues.”

“There are also concerns of where this will all lead and where it will end,” he said. “This bill says that, in matters of our faith and our religious beliefs and practices, it ends here.”

Tanner recalled a tearful phone call from the wife of a pastor who feared her husband would end up in jail.

“This is not something that churches should have to worry about in the United States and in our state,” said Tanner, a deacon at his Baptist church.

The north Georgia lawmaker said his bill “makes it clear that churches, synagogues, mosques and other sacred spaces are clearly free to operate in accord with their faith.” It follows the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last June requiring states to recognize same-sex marriages.

But the bill doesn’t go far enough, some legislators argued.

Rep. John Corbett, R-Lake Park, is among those who believe the Legislature should go a step further and take up the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was carried over from last year and would cast broader protections on religious grounds.

Rep. Kevin Cooke, R-Carrollton, said the Pastor Protection Act doesn’t protect all Georgians — or even all pastors.

As an example, he pointed to a pastor friend who does weddings at his family farm as a side business.

“This bill will protect him in the church, which, frankly, he’s not concerned about,” Cooke said. “But in his business, he’s still left vulnerable, and this bill doesn’t address that.”

Cooke said other proposals would protect him and “many others in all aspects of life.”

Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, sponsor of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act bill, tweeted that the Pastor Protection Act is really “a politician protection act.”

“Do not be deceived,” he wrote, adding that it “does nothing.”

Ralston said Tanner’s bill starts where common ground exists. He said he hopes it would lead to the “first productive discussion” on an issue charged with emotion.

Other religious liberty bills, however, promise to be more challenging. One proposal, also sponsored by Tanner, would allow businesses to refuse service for a same-sex wedding.

“That’s going to be a whole other ballgame,” said Rep. Dexter Sharper, D-Valdosta.

Tanner, meanwhile, said he wants his proposal to start a conversation that addresses concerns in the business community.

“These are important measures and important issues that get at a very emotional level of people’s being, and I think we have to be very careful how we move forward,” he said.

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