Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
A Testimony of Conscience and Conviction in the Workplace
A Testimony of Conscience and Conviction in the Workplace
Jan 14, 2026 10:12 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
Monks for Economic Liberty
We at Acton have been among the loudest critics of clergy and other religious leaders who undermine economic freedom (and therefore prosperity, including for the poor) by advocating more extensive government intervention in economic affairs. So we should be the first to applaud when clerics strike a blow for freedom. Kudos to the monks of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, Louisiana. Monasteries may seem an unlikely venue for capitalist ferment, but in fact they hold an important place in the...
Fair Trade and Good Intentions
A constant theme here at the Acton Institute is the idea that good intentions are not enough…they need to be connected to sound practice. In a reflection on fair trade at , D. C. mends Victor Claar’s monograph, ...
Raves for Ecumenical Babel
Two more thoughtful reviews of Jordan Ballor’s Ecumenical Babel: Confusing Economic Ideology and the Church’s Social Witness, now available on Kindle. First, from John Armstrong on his ACT 3 blog: In reducing its witness to advocacy for a particular set of policies, the ecumenical movement has abandoned the attempt to proclaim the Gospel, the true foundation of its spiritual authority. “This is surely a form of culture-Christianity,” writes Ramsey, “even if it is not that of the great cultural churches...
Youth: Problem or Solution for New Jobs?
The front page of a recent issue of the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano read like an Italian “Help Wanted” listing: “Lavori per Giovani Cercasi” (cf. Aug. 13 2010). Unfortunately, this eye-catching headline was not a classified ad targeting young professionals for job openings at the Holy See’s many curial and administrative offices – the prized “stable” positions that would have Roman youth queuing in lines much longer those to enter Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica! Rather, the Vatican newspaper...
Deficits, Debt, and Self-Deception
This week’s Acton Commentary: Deficits, Debt, and Self-Deception By Samuel Gregg It passed almost unnoticed, but in late July the Obama Administration raised the Federal Government’s budget deficit forecast for fiscal year 2011 to $1.4 trillion. That’s up from February’s forecast of $1.267 trillion. In July alone, the Federal Government’s deficit was $165 billion, of which $20 billion was for interest-payments on debt. The long-term outlook is even worse. The U.S. Government is now borrowing approximately 41 cents of every...
Dehumanization and punishment
Two of the things I’ve paid some attention to, one more recently and the other as an ongoing area of interest, came together in an Instapundit update yesterday. Glenn Reynolds linked to a video of a NYC cop who “threatens a man taking cell phone video with arrest.” This picks up the attention given here and here to the question of law enforcement and ‘citizen photojournalism.’ But what really struck me about this story was the threat attributed to the...
Jim Wallis/George Soros Update
World magazine has an update on the Jim Wallis story that I blogged about earlier this week. A Sojourners spokesman today reversed an earlier Wallis denial and confirmed the organization has received funding from Soros’ Open Society Institute. Sojourners is a leading organization on the religious left founded by Wallis, who is a spiritual adviser to President Obama. Soros is the billionaire financier of Moveon.org, a Democrat-leaning organization that pushes for abortion, atheism, bigger government, and other progressive causes. The...
The Rebel Economist Strikes Again
It’s always nice to hear from old friends, even when said old friends are unsettling you with tales of insane government spending. When last we heard from former Acton colleague Michelle McAdoo here on the PowerBlog, she was taking Washington by storm with her proposal for an “alternative stimulus.” In the interceding time, she’s gotten married (congratulations!) and now has returned with more tales from the dark and unsettling world of “stimulus.” Enjoy! Update/Clarification: Michelle adds: “just so you know,...
Advising the Poor to Do Less With Less
On his recently launched Ambiguorum Blogis site, Fr. Michael Butler is reviewing Elizabeth Theokritoff’s Living in God’s Creation: Orthodox Perspectives on Ecology (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009). Fr. Michael, who joined us for Acton University 2010, examines the author’s exhausted earth meme, beginning with this quote from the book: It is hard to escape the conclusion that with an ever-growing human population, it is not enough for humanity as a whole to do more with less; individually, we must also...
Francis Asbury: Born 265 Years ago Today
President Calvin Coolidge called Francis Asbury a “prophet in the wilderness.” He has also been called “the bishop on horseback” and “the prophet of the long road” for his prolific treks across the American frontier. The Methodist bishop who was born on August 20, 1745, was the architect of the American Methodist movement. The denomination grew from a few hundred upon his arrival to over 200,000 members at the time of his death. At his death in 1816, the Methodist...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved