$700,000+ raised for anti-gay pizzeria in Indiana.

Started by Valigarmander, April 03, 2015, 03:04:48 PM

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Valigarmander

Bigotry pays.
QuoteConservative Christians are rewarding an anti-gay Indiana pizzeria forced to close after publicly declaring they would not cater to same-sex weddings because of their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Over $700,000 has been raised for Memories Pizza, located in the 2,200-person town of Walkerton, about 20 miles southwest of South Bend. The pizzeria took center stage in a firestorm of controversy surrounding Indiana’s anti-gay Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Kevin O’Connor and his daughter Crystal own Memories Pizza. Earlier this week Crystal O’Connor was asked about Indiana’s anti-gay, religious freedom law. O’Connor told ABC 57:

We are a Christian establishment. If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no.

O’Connor’s remarks subsequently went viral, sparking outrage, with many LGBT supporters and other fair minded people noting that protecting this kind of anti-gay bigotry was the purpose behind Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act all along.

However, in addition to reasonable commentary, the owners of the pizzeria were also abused and harrassed on-line, with one social media commenter going so far as to threaten to burn down the pizzeria.

TPM reports critics of the law bombarded Memories Pizza’s Yelp page with negative reviews and flooded the restaurant with phony orders, forcing the O’Connor family to close up shop Wednesday.

After news spread that the pizzeria had closed its doors, an on-line fundraising accoung for the O’Connor family was set up, raising an astonishing amount of money, over $700k, in less than 48 hours.

Appearing on Fox News Thursday night, Memories Pizza Co-owner Crystal O’Connor said that the family appreciated the fundraising effort, and pledged to reopen the pizzeria soon. In addition, O’Connor doubled down on her opposition to catering a same-sex wedding, saying:

It is not a sin that we bring gays into our establishment and just serve them. It is a sin, though, if we cater their wedding. We feel we are participating. We’re putting a stamp of approval on their wedding. And we cannot do that.

O’Connor said her hypothetical discrimination wasn’t “hateful,” telling Fox:

It’s not all hateful, we show no hatred towards them. We just â€" we ask that they respect as we have to allow the way they believe â€" we just ask that they respect the way we believe.

O’Connor went on to say:

God has blessed us for standing up for what we believe, and not denying Him.

While God does not exist, anti-gay, conservastive Christians do, and they will financially support and reward discrimination and bigotry.

The culture wars continue.

Shiranu

QuoteGod has blessed us for standing up for what we believe, and not denying Him.

Or, you know, a large group of like-minded people who feel that your "persecution" is a persecution against them as well, and that they must "fight" for what they believe in (I.E. sending you money as you are a spearhead in their cause).

No more God blessing you than Allah has blessed masques that have been terrorized" (see; actually persecuted) by Christians and had large donations to them, or that Onkar blessed the survivors of the shooting at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin (see; actually persecuted) and caused the subsequent support by the government and donations.

The only difference is their Gods actually had reason to bless them because they were actual victims, you are just an asshole.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Munch

'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

stromboli

$700,000 for one business versus billions already lost in revenue from other businesses. Makes perfect sense.  :think:

stromboli

Don't know what a one time donation for a pizza shop amounts to over the long haul, but that is easily a years's wages in my book. And like Chick-Fil-A they will probably business overall rather than lose it. So good for them. But that doesn't fix the loss of revenue statewide that has already happened and will continue to. Not to mention the guaranteed upcoming legal challenges to the bill.

Johan

QuoteWe are a Christian establishment. If a gay couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no.
Isn't this kind of the same as saying if Superman walked in and wanted me to give him a BJ with kryptonite in my mouth, I would have to say no. A gay couple? Ordering pizza as catering? For their wedding? NEVER. GOING. TO. HAPPEN!!!!!!
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful

GSOgymrat

I'm not surprised by this at all. There is a Chick-fil-A in the same shopping center as my gym and during the gay debacle their line stretched across the parking lot. It was pretty amazing.

Mermaid

I'm not surprised, either. People's ability to completely suck seems boundless.
A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities â€" all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. -TR

hrdlr110

Quote from: Johan on April 03, 2015, 06:30:49 PM
Isn't this kind of the same as saying if Superman walked in and wanted me to give him a BJ with kryptonite in my mouth, I would have to say no. A gay couple? Ordering pizza as catering? For their wedding? NEVER. GOING. TO. HAPPEN!!!!!!

That's the first thing my gf said when i shared this story with her.  And she said "god bless America!"
Q for theists; how can there be freewill and miracles? And, how can prayer exist in an environment as regimented as "gods plan"?

"I'm a polyatheist, there are many gods I don't believe in." - Dan Fouts

Solomon Zorn

This one's close to home for me. I actually used to work in Walkerton. It's a little hick town, supported by an industrial park.  $700,000 is a lot of money around there. Makes me sick to see such belligerent assholes rewarded that way.
If God Exists, Why Does He Pretend Not to Exist?
Poetry and Proverbs of the Uneducated Hick

http://www.solomonzorn.com

aitm

Really, we need to figure out a way to suck these assholes dry,,it really must be that easy.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Solitary


We are a Muslim establishment. If a Christian couple came in and wanted us to provide pizzas for their wedding, we would have to say no, because they made the choice to be Christian. I wonder if they would think that would be OK?  :wall: Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

stromboli

Talk about a business opportunity. Here in Utah start a business and hang a sign dissing LGBT people and make sure it hits the internet. You'd never have to open your doors to make a fortune.

trdsf

Yaknow, I'm half tempted to start up some rumor like that to bring the wingnuts out, then take all the cash they donate and give it to the [urlhttp://www.hrc.org]HRC[/url] or the NOH8 campaign or something.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan