What’s the price of being a Christian artist in America? Sometimes death threats, hate mail, and a lawsuit.

The four professionals — florist Barronelle Stutzman, t-shirt designer Blaine Adamson, and calligraphy and paint artists Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski — are all in a legal battle for their right to express their faith in their work.

They spoke at a panel discussion Tuesday in Washington, D.C., hosted by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the non-profit legal firm representing them. Moderator Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist began by asking each of the clients about their story.

Blaine Adamson: T-Shirt Printer

Adamson, owner of Hands On Originals in Lexington, KY, said he started his t-shirt printing business in part to create t-shirts with Christian messages that “people actually want to wear.”

But when the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO) asked Adamson to print t-shirts promoting their Pride Parade, he declined, referring the group to another local company. It wasn’t the first time he’d declined to print a design that violated his conscience. He’d even turned away churches before, he said.

But GLSO filed a discrimination complaint. The Kentucky State Trial Court eventually ruled in Adamson’s favor, but the state is appealing the decision.

Barronelle Stutzman: Florist

Stutzman runs a floral shop in southern Washington State, where she was friends with and often served one man, Rob, who is gay. When Rob told Barronelle he was getting married asked her serve his wedding, she explained that doing so would contradict her relationship with Jesus Christ. After she referred him to three other florists, Stutzman said, they talked amicably for a few more minutes, hugged, and he left.

Later, a social media post from Rob’s partner went viral (she says he merely stated that their feelings had been hurt). Stutzman immediately began receiving hate mail and threats.

The Washington State attorney general and the ACLU are suing Stutzman both personally and corporately. If she loses, she and her husband will likely have to pay over $2 million in attorney fees.

“We stand to lose everything we’ve worked for and own,” she said.

Jack Phillips

Kerri Kupec, ADF Communications Director, told the story of Jack Phillips, an ADF client who didn’t attend the panel. When the Colorado-based cake artist was asked to create a custom cake celebrating a wedding his conscience couldn’t condone, he declined, referring the customers elsewhere for their wedding cake, and offering to sell them anything else in his store.

For this simple attempt to honor his convictions, Phillips was compared to perpetrators of the Holocaust and slave owners. This was particularly upsetting for Phillips, whose father fought in the D-Day invasion of World War II and was among the first of those troops to liberate Jews from a concentration camp.

Kupec also noted that the same commission that condemned Phillips for declining to create a custom cake for a same-sex wedding supported three other bakeries that declined to bake cakes with religious messages.

Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski

Duka and Koski went into business together after meeting at church. Their business, Brush & Nib Studio in Phoeniz, Az, often provides custom invitations, signs and decor for weddings. Duka does the calligraphy, and Koski paints.

But a new Phoenix law mandated that no business can publish any communication that states or implies that anyone is unwelcome, unacceptable or undesirable. Such a broad mandate could even prevent business owners from stating their beliefs on their websites, whether it be a Christian business that opposes same-sex marriage, or a secular business that opposes Christianity.

ADF’s Jonathan Scruggs, Duka and Koski’s attorney, explained that if they don’t comply, the young women could face a penalization of up to $2,500 per day and six months in jail. They are challenging the law. “That should be concerning not just for people of all faiths, but people of all beliefs, when the government can tell us what to say and what we can’t say,” Scruggs said.

Unlikely Supporters

Americans of all beliefs are concerned. Adamson said the owner of another printing company, a lesbian woman, has supported him, saying she would never want the government to force her to print a design she didn’t agree with. Former employees who are gay called and offered to stand up with him.

Stutzman received similar support. One gay man called Stutzman and gave her $5,000 — all that was in his savings — because he believed she had been wronged. Stutzman also received encouragement from two lesbian women who frequent her store to this day.

“They understand that it’s not just a Christian issue,” Adamson said, “that when the government wants to come in and force us as printers, as artists to do things against our conscience, that’s not okay, that’s kind of the line.”

Overall, however, business owners like ADF’s clients have been cast by opponents as bigots and haters. Their experiences do evidence bigotry — but of a different kind.

Kelvin Cochran, former fire chief and ADF client, offered some opening and closing remarks at the panel. When he was first hired as a firefighter, Cochran faced blatant bigotry because of his race. He was forced to sleep on a designated mattress, use designated silverware, and wash dishes for the other men. But he pressed on. When he eventually became Atlanta, Georgia’s first African-American fire chief, he pledged that no one would face discrimination under his leadership.

Ironically, it was him who later faced discrimination, this time for his faith — and not faith expressed on the job, but faith expressed in a book he authored privately for a Christian men’s group. Cochran was fired for writing about those beliefs.

Suffering for Faith? Worth It

The Christians on ADF’s panel have faced harassment, threats, and loss of business for staying true to their convictions. But as they indicated Tuesday, their faith remains strong.

Sharing previous trials she believes prepared her for this one, Stutzman smiled through tears. “He says if we seek him out and are obedient, he will take care of us. And that’s what I count on.”

“Society’s views are going to change and shift,” Adamson said, “but God doesn’t change. He’s my strength. He’s the thing I go back to, and I say, okay God, whatever it takes, whatever the cost is, I’m okay with it, because my hope is in you, not in man.”

Watch the entire panel discussion below: