FRC - Tony Perkins - October 9, 2014
A Kentucky company called "Hands On" wishes liberals would keep their "hands off!" Two years after the Christian outfitters turned down a t-shirt order for a local gay pride parade, the far-Left crowd is getting its revenge. After 24 months of back-and-forth, Lexington's Human Rights Commission finally issued its ruling this week, finding the business guilty of breaking the town's "fairness" ordinance. Their punishment? City-ordered reeducation known as "diversity training."
The Commission's Executive Director, Raymond Sexton, says he agrees that it's time for Christians in the marketplace "to leave their religion at home." Otherwise, he warned, "you can find yourself two years down the road and you're still involved in a legal battle because you did not do so." Still, he tried to hedge, "We're not telling somehow how to feel with respect to religion, but the law is pretty clear that if you operate a business to the public, you need to provide your services to people regardless..." Sexton explained to Fox News's Todd Starnes.
But just because a company sells to the public doesn't mean it has to surrender its private views. Even for a t-shirt company, there's no one-size-fits all approach to managing a business. Like any shop, Hands On has the freedom to establish its own criteria of conduct and conscience. Blaine Adamson, the devout believer who runs Hands On Originals, was stunned. After all, there was no malice in the family's decision -- who politely declined to print t-shirts with a rainbow message that contradicted their faith. Unfortunately for the Left, the Constitution doesn't award its rights on the basis of political correctness. And until that changes, the Adamsons have as much freedom to reject homosexuality as his customers do to endorse it.
