Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Tolerance......or else!

"Gay marriage won't affect your life at all" they said.

"We're not interested in infringing upon anyone's religious beliefs" they said.

Over the past decade as states began to decide on whether or not to sanction same-sex "marriage," those were the common retorts to those of us who had moral objections.

Slowly but surely, those who considered themselves social conservatives acquiesced to the fact that "gay marriage" would soon become the law of the land. Some even took the route of "live and let live." Ah, but Erick Erickson of Red State warned that social cons who slowly became ambivalent would indeed "be made to care."

Who would have guessed that cakes and pizza would be at the epicenter of this culture war?

A family-owned pizzeria in Indiana closed on Wednesday following backlash over its support of a controversial religious freedom law.

TMZ reported that Memories Pizza is suspending its business operations amid uproar over the state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Owner Kevin O’Connor said vitriol toward his restaurant was so intense it was closed until further notice. The eatery began receiving threatening phone calls and social media postings after revealing its support for the law earlier this week.

O’Connor and his family initially inspired public rage by declaring that they would not cater gay weddings on Tuesday. That announcement made Memories Pizza Indiana’s first business to refuse potential customers service for religious reasons under the new law.

It also drew venom from furious critics online. They have since flooded the store’s Yelp page with negative reviews protesting the O’Connor family’s position. Memories had an average rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars based on 1,850 reviews as of Wednesday evening.


I've said it on myriad occasions, but it's worth repeating: A moral objection to one's behavior does not equate to hating that person. So the idea that this legislation is "anti-gay" is complete bull pucky.

Another bit of misinformation being peddled is how Memories Pizza "refused to serve gays." Again, no. If a group of gay guys were to enter this pizzeria to have dinner, the restaurant by law could not refuse to serve them. The issue at hand is partaking in an exercise (i.e. indulging a gay wedding when one's religion sanctions only heterosexual marriage) which would violate an individual's (in the case, O'Connor's) religious conscience. The RFRA stated that the government “may not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion.” Seems to me that's pretty much upholding what is spelled out in the 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Many members of the "Gay-stapo" were jumping around like poo flinging monkey on social media Wednesday in reaction to Memories Pizza shutting down for the foreseeable future. It's as if the bully tactics (which many homosexuals claimed to have endured before this society became more accepting of the gay lifestyle) are justifiable means to the only acceptable end. In essence, if one does not kowtow to these fascist tactics, one is forever labeled a bigot. Again, you're being made to care.

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