Religious Freedom Worth $100K+ to Conservative Donors
A stand for faith goes viral
Yesterday, we told you about a small Indiana pizza joint that has been forced to close down after its proprietors committed the unpardonable sin of coming forward in support of Indiana’s new RFRA law. An irresponsible “news hit” led to a landslide of boycott threats, liberal thinkpieces, and threats against the lives and livelihoods of Memories Pizza’s proprietors.
I’m going to walk back a word I used just now—what happened here goes beyond a “boycott.” Nobody involved in what has been done to Memories Pizza is “taking a stand”—unless, of course, this is what “taking a stand” looks like:
Twitter is full of nutcases, but here’s the problem—no one in the local media took a stand against this.
The conservative media, however, has come out in force against what is being done to these people. Lawrence Billy Jones, an opinion contributor to The Blaze’s “Dana,” set up a GoFundMe account to help—and with a little help from Dana Loesch and her friends, the thing went viral.
They started out with a modest goal of $25,000. Here’s where they’re at now (as of this writing):
Lawrence Billy Jones explains why this account was set up:
Our goal was simply to help take one thing off this family’s plate as the strangers sought to destroy them.
But other strangers came to the rescue and the total just keeps going up.
Thank you for helping us do some good for this family who were scared and in hiding just 24 hours before this writing.
All money, save whatever percentage GoFundMe takes, will be transferred directly to whichever bank account the O’Connors wish to use.
Show producers are in direct contact with the family to ensure that they never feel like they are being left out of what is going on.
Right now, proprietor Crystal O’Connor and her family are in hiding. As in, they cannot leave their home for fear of their lives. This is important. You should be paying attention to this not because of the specific issue—even conservatives are split on gay marriage—but because it highlights just how powerful the militant progressive lynch mob can be.
Memories Pizza may never open again, but the owners and their supporters aren’t prepared to go down without a fight—and that’s the only way to beat back the outrage machine and come out standing.
You can listen to Crystal O’Connor’s interview with Dana Loesch here:
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Comments
Anyone want to bet on how long before GOFUNDME closes down the donation site?
I’ve seen people on Twitchy attack it as a fake effort and a swindle and fraud. I doubt it – this is perfectly in character for Dana Loesch after all. But the “the family’s not running the GoFundMe page!!” angle might be one way to try and shut it down.
Sad this is so predictable. I’ve been telling people that this is the latest of a string of moral panics. Or immoral panics, some might venture. The process is eerily similar to what used to be called Yellow Journalism, isn’t it?
Even if they were successful at shutting it down, Rush is all over this and I’d bet that he already has a plan to negate it. BTW he says it’s about a dozen people with a twitter algorithm that makes them look like thousands.
the funny thing about this is that the newly-elected prosecutor of St. Joseph County — where this pizza parlor is — happens to be from a family that is as pro-gay marriage as can exist. He is much more likely to pin a medal on this coach than he is to prosecute her.
“no one in the local media took a stand against this.”
and BTW… the prosecutor’s father was managing editor of the South Bend Tribune for many years which is the majorly dominant news media in the county… there is no wonder why the “local media” didn’t rush to the defense of the pizza parlor’s freedom.
Female coach.
Probably coaching girl’s sports.
Wonder if any kids have had inappropriate contact. Seems like I’ve seen a lot of those stories lately.
I see the police department did an “investigation” and has turned the paper work over to the prosecutor. That will be interesting.
How is this in any way not hate? The MSM (local and national, since they picked it up) is complicit.
That this family has to hide, even from perceived harm – just for saying they have a deeply held religious believe and spoke of it out loud – how much more un-American can it get than this?!
RE: “How is this in any way not hate?”
I agree, but the answer is: because this was said in support of a liberal ideal. Free speech and tolerance are great — as long as they don’t conflict with liberal ideals.
Objection to liberal intolerance will not be tolerated.
How many times do liberals say, “But there are limits to free speech.” OK, what are those limits? One of them that is frequently abused by liberals in inciting violence. “Whose going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w/ me?” sounds like incitement to me.
The process is eerily similar to what used to be called Yellow Journalism, isn’t it? JBourke
The process is eerily similar to what used to be called “the truth” when Joseph Goebbels repeated his Big Lie “often enough” in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.
Rush spent at least the first two hours discussing this travesty today. He mentioned the GoFundMe site, so expect half-a-million bucks real soon now. His main point was that this Twitter firestorm is all fake (AKA “astroturf”) by a very small group (maybe ten) of Soros-funded activists.
Rush also talked about the fact that this was a random setup “news” piece. Apparently, the news crew was just going door-to-door asking the gotcha question. When they got a naive young girl who was just being polite to respond, they stopped and went back to the news room. They had their ‘story’ and that story was completely made-up. They knew what the story was going to be and they questioned people until they got the answer they wanted.
The $150K donated to the pizza place? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Choke on it, leftists!
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/04/memories-pizza-and-the-gay-rights-movements-flirtation-with-totalitariansim.php
Flirtation? I’d say it was a bodily fluid slinging affair that makes 50 Shades Of Gray look white.
Is anyone else having trouble donating? I have tried three times, checked my numbers, and checked my balance. There is no reason on my side for the trouble.
The only trouble that I’m seeing is that the site is getting swamped with so many people wanting to donate at the same time after hearing about it on Rush today.
Many years ago I read a book written by Rush Limbaugh that included a rather similar story he was involved in that long, long preceded GoFundMe. Except it was a bake sale, basically. Turned into this ridiculously large event. Human decency may be taking a beating lately, but it’s not quite dead yet.
Oh yeah, I remember that story. He even showed pictures of how large that bake sale became! It looked like a town festival!
I tried six times last night. Got stuck in an endless loop of “Continue” that just re-loaded the page. I’ll give it another whirl today.
This whole thing has the word “Totalitarian” written all over it.
If only Aleksander Solzhenitsyn were around to see this…
OT – but related:
The video of the day – Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army” – would NEVER be allowed to on-air today. “…one less white n***er…” and all those ethnic costumes?!?!!? And he’s WHITE MALE?!?!?!!? Aaaahhhhhhh!!!!! Hate speech!!! Raaaaacists!!!! Trigger-filled H8!!! /sarc
On topic: this current manufactured “thought&speech=hate-crime” crisis – prime example of what an oppressive, totalitarian world our PC leftist progressive “betters” call “utopia.” (As Plato’s Republic concluded, if anyone cares to read classics anymore.)
No thanks – you can KEEP it!!
I would not be surprised if Christians (and others) aren’t forced to worship underground, as they do in China, in the not too distant future. Religious people – except Muslims, it seems – need to be destroyed, given recent current events: acts in France, Egypt, Libya (specifically Christians massacred on the beach), constant ISIS attacks, Nigeria, and today Kenya…….
Lord, help and protect us.
As of right now, they’re at $214 grand.
Put it this way: the GoFundMe page set up for the nice man in Detroit who walked four hours to work and four hours back home because he couldn’t afford a car raised over $300 grand in about two or three weeks.
But this page has collected $200 grand in less than 24 hours. Think about it.
Who knows if, after all this, they don’t have to bake pizzas for a living again in their lives!
That would be good, because it’s an open question whether they will ever be able to open a shop again without being firebombed.
That’s a huge windfall. I hope all of these people who are receiving six figure donations get some tax advise.
Especially this one. She was terrorized for answering a hypothetical question and she expressed a “conservative” view in her response. We all know the IRS targets conservatives.
I suspect there is almost a 100% probability she will be audited after she files her ’15 tax return.
It sounds like this family was set up.
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/04/01/indiana-pizza-shop-gets-set-up-by-local-reporter-instantaneous-national-moonbattery-ensues/
Yeah. the owner’s *daughter* innocently answered a question while minding the store. The reporter took full advantage of her Midwestern Christian values and well, I can’t use the language here that would normally apply to what the reporter did to her and her kin. It is rather disgusting. stevewhitemd below has it just right, this reporter was going to find a victim, the pizza place just got the short straw.
Just donated, able to get through, happy to do it.
As JoAnne points out, it was a set-up all the way. The local media was going to nail the first local business that gave the “wrong” answer. Just happened to be the pizza place.
The good news is, I’m taking the donation I just made out of the newspaper bill I just received.
I’m also mindful of exactly how it was reported in liberal circles, namely that this business was the first in Indiana to make a public proclamation that it would refuse to cater to gay weddings (or in the vernacular, to “refuse service to gays” which is inaccurate). The reporting said this business gleefully asked for trouble and strongly implied it deserved complete utter vilification in return, which is what it received at any rate, complete with murder and arson threats. I guess it works me up because I have a thick skin for political warfare, but when you go launching a pogrom against normal people, that gets old fast.
America, a government of the frenzied faggot, by the frenzied faggot, for the frenzied faggot.
$500,000 or more? Yikes.
ANNOUNCEMENT: I WILL NO LONGER PROVIDE FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES TO SAME SEX MARRIED CLIENTS. BIG TIME HATER RIGHT HERE. PLEASE DESTROY ME TO THE TUNE OF HALF A FRIKKIN’ MILLION TOO.
remember our gay marriage means I get half.
That comment makes you an azz but it was LoL funny.
should have been ‘makes you look like an azz’ – sorry for the brain freeze.
no problem, I do many other things that make me look that way too 🙂
$253,470 raised under 24 hours! WOW!!!
Good job, Leftist Fascists! Please, PLEASE harass them some more!
Outstanding response from We the People. In just the time it took to re-read the blurb on the gofundme page, an all new set of donors/donations appeared on the sidebar with $150 total donations in less than 2-3 minutes.
There’s still a solid core in the USA, just a rotten shell around it that needs to be broken through.
Unfortunately, I believe that at this point, any conservative-minded business owner should turn away any media attempts in their places of business, and restrain themselves in interviews.
The owner’s daughter should have said something to the effect of: Sorry, we don’t do catering at all, and request a call-ahead on any orders over 6 pies, so it is a moot question. Now, talking doesn’t pay the bills, and as much as I’d like to chat I have a business to run, so are you buying or leaving?
Too bad a young woman holding down the counter at the family shop should even have to consider parsing her answer like that, though.
Unfortunately, if other conservative business owners are like this conservative business owner we will not be surrendering as you recommend, but we thank you for the unsolicited bad advice.
The young lady from the pizza place was on with Cavuto briefly, more tonight I think. She seemed to have been coached.
She said they gladly serve anyone, but felt that participating in a wedding ceremony would be condoning gay marriage, which is against their beliefs.
So she was honest, they got rewarded. I didn’t sound like they were really too afraid, mostly bewildered that a comment could turn into such hostility.
If you listened to her father speaking with Beck this morning, he could hardly talk at times. I tried and failed to find a link.
Along with the donated money we can believe that somebody stepped up with personal security, bodyguards, and that would go a long way to calming nerves.
Of course, it isn’t necessary for the O’Connors to be bone scared before one can say they were wronged.
sorry, missed these replies.
Yeah they were shaken up some, and all the threats were no doubt intimidating. I didn’t see the ones where he could barely talk. I wasn’t trying to downplay their experience so much as to say that standing up to these bullies is usually easier than people think, and necessary in any case. Of course if it came to lawsuits then we get real “lawfare”.
Others were saying “never talk to a reporter, they don’t have your best interests at heart”. True .. but these honest people talking to reporters was actually very powerful as a way of stopping the overreach. Their simple stand and ugly internet and phone line responses exposed the ugly left.
So in other words, standing up to the bullies and being honest is necessary. Cowering and not talking to conniving reporters might work, but these nice people showed that enduring a little wrath is worth it, even if most of the time it ends up bad.
In a sense they displayed civil disobedience to the PC law. Not ever talking to conniving reporters would mean the PC intimidation is successful.
Henry’s smarter than me so he got it but I didn’t. What is your point?
yeah, I wasn’t clear I guess … seemed clear to me. ha
I think maybe I was responding to this “victim” mentality, which I don’t think even those that are “victims” should take on. By the time I saw them on air they were already heroes, having faced down the enemy.
Without Dana maybe they would have closed for good, but I think it would have died down, and others would have come to their aid. In any case, they’re heroes, not victims. It was good they got a little coaching before going on air, the cavalry had arrived.
$360,000 raised at this time. Amazing!
Over $467,000 and rising. I hope the left chokes on it.
Pretty close to half a million right now!!!! Just about $25 grand short!
C’mon, Lefto-Fascists! Please, PLEASE harass this family some more! We’re almost there! 🙂
$140,000 raised overnight. $502,000 at 8:45 a.m.
When Dan Loesch and Lawrence Jones present the oversize facsimile of the check to the O’Connors I hope the reporter from that ABC affiliate who started all this is in the crowd so the other reports can ask her some very pointed questions.
Part of the money should be invested in hiring a good lawyer to sue her and the station, plus a few others who libeled and endangered them.
Lawfare! I love it when it’s waged like Sherman’s scorched earth march to the sea.
The hate crime suffered by the O’Connors is only one step removed from the carnage at the Kenya university this week.