Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
A Testimony of Conscience and Conviction in the Workplace
A Testimony of Conscience and Conviction in the Workplace
May 9, 2025 1:28 AM

Hands On Originals is a small pany in Lexington, Kentucky, that, up until recently, had very few problems when they declined to print a certain message.

Last year, however, the owner, Blaine Adamson, was found guilty of discrimination by a Lexington human mission for refusing to print T-shirts for a local gay pride festival. missioners ordered that Adamson must violate his conscience, and further, must participate in diversity training to be conducted by mission.

Fortunately, this story has a happier ending than that of the baker and florist, as the Fayette Circuit Court ended up reversing mission’s decision. “It is their constitutional right to hold dearly and to not pelled to be part of an advocacy message opposed to their sincerely held Christian beliefs,” Judge James Ishmael wrote in his decision.

Watch below for more of Blaine’s testimony:

When this first happened and it hit the papers, businesses began to pull their business from us. Right and left we were losing customers. There came a point where I was so broken. I went home, I just laid in bed with lights out and began to cry out to the Lord, and just say, “God, I will stand no matter what the cost will be.” Because we are the ones at the end of the day that have to print that on a shirt, and it speaks a message the second es off the press. And for me, I’m accountable to that. I’m accountable to that first to God —of what I put on a shirt to promote.

But we did wrestle with the reality in this that we may lose our business…Why would I as a business owner —who, our business has grown year after year — want to bring this on pany? If anything, I would want to stay as far away from it as possible. But there is a cost. There is something that calls out to me that says, “I’ve got to speak truth.”

HT Joseph Williams

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Loss of Institutional Faith
In this mentary I say that part of the reason less money is being given to local churches is that it is reflective of a broader trend of distrust towards institutions. Commentary magazine’s blog contentions has some more recent data confirming this overall shift. The post summarizes the December issue of AEI’s “Political Report” (PDF), which focuses especially on trust in the government. It finds that “contemporary criticisms of the federal government are broad and deep” and that, for instance,...
Re: The Politics of Hunger
Jordan’s post on hunger raises a timely question, on a day when First Lady Michelle Obama was on hand to watch the president sign the $4.5 billion “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” at a Washington elementary school. Despite the media coverage and White House spin that points to this in part as a hunger fighting piece of legislation, the measure is really about obesity. Because in America, the real problem with food is superabundance and waste, not scarcity and hunger. As...
Why the Nativity?
Increasingly the Nativity tends to be associated with the political, as the crèche and other overtly religious symbols are banished from the public square by public pressure or the courts. To some municates a baby savior with so little power he can’t even defeat the secular legal authorities who seek his removal. If God is out there, “He must be pretty weak,” could be mon refrain today. Likewise in some churches the Nativity is seen as an activity for the...
The Politics of Hunger
In an otherwise fine piece focusing on innovative techniques used by food banks to increase efficiency, while at the same time improving service and the recognition of the dignity of those they serve, Bread for the World president David Beckmann uses the opportunity to throw a dose of pessimism into the mix. “We can’t food-bank our way to the end of hunger,” said Beckmann, co-recipient of the 2010 World Food Prize. “Christian people need to change the politics of hunger...
Understanding Human Behavior
In “Human Nature and Capitalism” on AEI’s The American, Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner look at three different “pictures” of what it means to be human and point to the one, foundational understanding that has undergirded the flourishing American culture of democratic capitalism: “If men were angels,” wrote James Madison, the father of the Constitution, in Federalist Paper No. 51, “no government would be necessary.” But Madison and the other founders knew men were not angels and would never...
In the ‘pressure cooker’
Video: Hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police across central Athens on Wednesday, smashing cars and hurling gasoline bombs during a nationwide labour protest against the government’s latest austerity measures. The former Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis was attacked by protesters outside a luxury hotel. He was escorted, bleeding from the scene as his attackers yelled “thieves” at him. Source: Russia Today In the Greek daily Kathimerini, Alexis Papachelas writes: There are no easy answers and, to make matters worse, we...
Samuel Gregg: Socialism and Solidarity
On Public Discourse, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg observes in a new piece that “while moral beliefs have an important impact upon economic life, the manner in which they are given institutional expression also matters. This is illustrated by the different ways in which people’s responsibilities to those in need—what might be called the good of solidarity—are given political and economic form.” Excerpt: … the rather modest welfare and labor-market reforms presently being implemented in Spain, Greece and France have...
Addendum to Loss of Institutional Faith
Here’s a final and brief follow-up to the discussion about the loss of faith in institutions over recent decades. We might observe that the increase in charitable giving to religious organizations amidst declines in charitable giving overall might show that at least there is not a corresponding loss of faith by religious people in charitable institutions. This is the implication, in fact, at least for institutions other than local churches. Overall, though, it does seem clear that “big charity” is...
Christian Giving Begins with the Local Church
In today’s Acton Commentary I argue that “Christian Giving Begins with the Local Church.” I note some statistics that show that American Christians are increasingly looking beyond their local congregations and churches as outlets for their charitable giving, in spite of the fact that giving to religiously affiliated and religiously focused charities is increasing. What es down to, I think, is that in large part Christians don’t trust their local congregations to spend the money in a way that is...
The Morality of GM Food
Steve Connor in The Independent (HT: RealClearReligion) speculates about some happenings at the Vatican with regard to genetically-modified (GM) food. It’s important to note, as is the case in this article, that things that happen in mittees and study groups at the Vatican do not by default have some kind of papal endorsement. To wit: A leaked document from a group of scientists linked to Rome has set a hare running about the possible endorsement of GM technology by the...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved