Three American Christians who refuse to cave

I recently returned from a Christian conference in Nashville, Tenn., where I listened to three people who’ve lost business for refusing to cave to the abortion and homosexual lobbies.

Greg Stormans, owner of Ralph’s Thriftway in Washington state, a 70-year-old family business, refused to carry drugs that could cause abortions. Stormans has been battling to protect his rights for 10 years. The Democratic governor partnered with Planned Parenthood to create a law that bars pharmacies from refusing to stock potential abortion-causing drugs on religious grounds. Pharmacies may refer customers to other pharmacies for all kinds of reasons, except religious. There is good news, though: An injunction is pending against the law.

Stormans, because of this law, has had to reduce employee wages, hours, and benefits, and he has nearly gone bankrupt several times. His children’s teachers have openly spoken against his business. He has accurately called what’s happening to him and his family’s business spiritual warfare.

Blaine Adamson owns Hands On Originals, a company in Kentucky that prints messages on T-shirts, among other services. He’s served homosexual customers, but he drew the line at printing “gay pride” shirts. (Imagine a disgruntled cheater suing him for refusing to print “adulterer’s pride” on shirts.) A local human rights commission ruled he’d discriminated against homosexuals and ordered him and his employees to submit to reeducation, aka “diversity training.” Thankfully, a court disagreed and ruled in his favor. Although Adamson ended up losing a big client, the University of Kentucky, he said worship isn’t something you do only in church; it’s part of everything we do. If he had to do it all over again, Adamson said he’d do the same. God hasn’t changed, he pointed out.

Barronelle Stutzman considers her Washington state business, Arlene’s Flowers, a mission field. She became very emotional when she talked about a longtime homosexual customer, who she described as a friend she loves. He asked her to do a flower arrangement for his same-sex wedding. She told him she could not. Stutzman said the two hugged and seemingly left things on good terms. But she soon received a certified letter threatening a lawsuit if she didn’t comply with her friend’s request. Kristen Waggoner, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom (also on the panel at the conference), said that although no one had filed a complaint against Stutzman, the government and the American Civil Liberties Union sued her professionally and personally.

Panel moderator and Fox News commentator Todd Starnes warned that these increasingly powerful human rights commissions are not about human rights. They exist at city, county, and state levels, and their members are appointed, not elected. It’s prudent for you to find out what your local commissions are up to.

The acceptance of perversion as normal has pervaded our institutions. What was once considered common sense has become bigotry in the eyes of the world. Constitutional rights have been replaced with bizarre extra-constitutional ones. But these three stalwarts, and others like them, are standing strong in the name of Christ.