Holly Meyer

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Conservative commentator Todd Starnes believes the country is in the midst of a war on religious liberty and urged Christian media to help fight it by sharing the stories of those caught in the cross hairs.

Starnes, the host of "Fox News and Commentary," led by example Thursday by moderating a panel of business owners who landed in legal trouble after refusing service to customers based on their beliefs. The impassioned discussion took place at the National Religious Broadcasters' annual convention, which drew thousands of Christian media and ministry professionals this week to Nashville.

"Engage the culture and stay informed and educate your listeners and viewers, the people that are also reading your work on digital platforms. It is just incredibly important," Starnes said. "One day it might be somebody in your church. It might be somebody in your neighborhood. It might be somebody whose kid plays on your little league team. It might be you."

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The crowd that gathered in a ballroom at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center listened to a T-shirt maker, a florist and a pharmacy owner recount their experiences. All three are clients of the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal organization that specializes in these types of cases. The organization sponsored the session at the convention.

Kristen Waggoner, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, sat on Thursday's panel, providing context for the cases.

"There isn't a day that goes by at Alliance Defending Freedom where we don't get many calls that have to do with someone who is being forced to choose between their conscience and their business or their profession, their vocation, their license," Waggoner said.

Kentucky T-shirt shop owner Blaine Adamson would not create gay pride shirts, and Washington state florist Barronelle Stutzman refused to provide flowers for a longtime client's marriage to a same-sex partner.

"God hasn't changed, and I guess that's really my perspective. He calls us in his word. He promises one thing, not that we like to talk about it, but we'll suffer for his namesake," Adamson said. "The word hasn't changed so I can't change on my position."

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A recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that a majority of white evangelical Protestants supported allowing small-business owners to deny services to gay and lesbian customers for religious reasons. The majority of Mormons also favored that stance, while most of the religious traditions surveyed did not.

The cases aren't unique to marriage. Greg Stormans, who owns Ralph's Thriftway in Washington state, is embroiled in about a decade-long legal fight for refusing to stock emergency contraception for religious reasons.

"There's a lot of courts out there. There's a court of public opinion. There's the U.S. District Court. The 9th Circuit Court. They've all weighed in. Maybe the Supreme Court will weigh in," Stormans said. "But God's court and God as a judge is the one where we really want to win our case in, and we know if we just keep doing what he's asking us to do and follow that path, he will bless us with the work that we're doing."

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Reach Holly Meyer at 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.