Poor Crystal O’Connor.
The owner of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, IN barely looks old enough to vote, much less own a restaurant. And there’s no way she could have been prepared for what was about to happen when a reporter looking for a story wandered into her establishment.
ABC57 News – See the Difference Michiana
There’s so much absurdity here. First, the obvious: who has EVER heard of a wedding, gay or straight, catered by a pizza place? Can you see the RSVP now? “Please choose between pepperoni, cheese only and supreme when sending your response.”
Crystal insists in the video that she’d never deny service to a homosexual person or couple, she’d just draw the line at catering their wedding. You have to wonder about her dad, tho as he spouts off about his “choice” to be heterosexual as opposed to the “choice” to be gay. I personally don’t remember making any decision like that growing up. I think I’ve pretty much always liked males (I’m female) and never really knew it was optional.
Nonetheless, everyone in the country has gone apeshit over this news story. First, Memories Yelp and Twitter and Facebook accounts exploded with negativity. People tweeted that “lets all go to Indiana and burn this place down!” There was so much uproar that the O’Connor family had to close the restaurant in fear for their safety.
In response to THAT the other side of the debate took up the outrage, insisting what was happening to Memories Pizza was just the latest example in the War on Christianity in America. Crystal and her dad are the new darlings of the Right, and as I write this (at 6:40 PM on Friday, April 3) a GoFundMe campaign on their behalf has raised – get this – $826,372.
Who Is Persecuting Who?
So here’s what we have. A group of people (LGBT) have been denied a right for pretty much ever. Now, they’re winning the battle to have that right recognized, and gay marriage is almost universally the law of the land.
Which means WEDDINGS! Now I’m a business person, and to me opening up a whole new market segment sounds like a wonderful thing. New customers should mean new profits, right? Unfortunately, certain Christian business owners are really beside themselves about this whole idea. It’s as if no “sin” were ever legalized before. I’m sure every one of them have participated in the weddings of adulterers, liars, fornicators, idolaters, blasphemers, even possibly rapists and murders. You never hear about those weddings going without flowers or a cake.
50 years ago it was only recently legal for interracial couples to get married. That was supposedly a sin as well. I got a lot of crap as a kid because my parents insisted it was actually sinful for me as a little white girl to be friends with little black girls. Once I made the mistake of inviting such a friend over to play. When we arrived at the place where the little girl was supposed to come home with me, my mom suddenly announced we ‘had things to do’ and she couldn’t come. And I got in trouble for not informing my parents my friend wasn’t white. Which hadn’t crossed my mind.
They “had Bible” to back up this belief of course. The Tower of Babel story actually. God said for the races not to mix. Plus some stuff about how Jews weren’t supposed to mix with Gentiles, I don’t remember it all now. So when an interracial couple wants a wedding cake, can they be turned down? Of course not. That’s discrimination.
But I have digressed.
Or have I? The point is, if you make wedding cakes and you refuse to make one because the couple is gay, you are discriminating against them.
If an African American comes to your restaurant and you refuse to serve them, you are discriminating against them. So when you’re fined for discrimination, and you face those consequences, are you being PERsecuted, or PROSecuted?
If you can’t figure that one out, try this one: If you truly believe what the Bible says about homosexuality, and you decide to go out and stone yourself some gays (and not with marijuana mind you), when you’re caught and put on trial will you be PERsecuted or PROSecuted?
Got it now?
“So You’d Make A Jew Put A Swastika On A Cake? Or Make A Muslim Serve Pork?”
I am sick to DEATH of this idiotic argument. And the one about trying to get a gay baker to make a cake that says “homosexuality is a sin” or whatever. That is entirely different. Everyone has the right to refuse those types of things because you’d blanketly refuse to do them for everyone. You can not be forced to write something on your cake, or print it on the t-shirts you make, etc. that you are uncomfortable with. THAT is not discrimination when you refuse to do it, because you’re refusing to make a product.
The difference here is that you WILL make wedding cakes, but JUST not for people who are going to serve them at certain types of weddings.
No matter how you slice it, it’s discrimination. And the conservative Christian community seems to think that discrimination is their moral duty and God-Given-Right. It’s more important than feeding the hungry or helping children with cancer pay for medical expenses. Because none of those GoFundMe campaigns raise that much money that fast.
I guess hate is stronger than love.