Memories Pizza and Real Social Justice

on April 10, 2015

The dust is finally settling after vicious harassment and death threats besieged the Christian owners of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana. An onslaught of national media attention catapulted father and daughter O’Conner to the center of a national firefight over religious freedom. Forced to close their doors and go into hiding, Kevin O’Conner contemplated closing up shop permanently due to violent threats.

Thanks be to God, their circumstances changed when The Blaze launched an online fundraiser raising $842,387 from nearly 30,000 donors across the country. Not all professing Christians are happy about this financial blessing.

Some among the Religious Left took a bold stand for justice from their living room sofas to write mischaracterizing blogs about faithful Christians’ like Kevin O’Conner and his young daughter Crystal for being uncompassionate, bigoted and unloving because of their convictions on sexuality and marriage. However, in a surprising turn of events it is the conservative Christian pizzeria owners left doing justice and showing mercy according to the Gospel.

One progressive Christian blogger for Patheos.com did not share in the O’Conner’s relief and thanksgiving over the incoming donations. “Regardless of the details, I can hardly stomach this whole thing,” wrote blogger Susan Cottrell in her blog post, “Anti-Gay Christians: Are You Being Scammed?

Cottrell lamented:

They raised nearly $850,000! What good work could have been done with that money? What do you think God might prefer that money be used for? Food for the hungry? Shelter for the homeless? Help for the poor? Support for homeless youth? The biblical “widows and orphans”?

Accusations. Preconceived notions. Judgments.

Unlikely that Ms. Cottrell has ever met either the supposeldy “anti-gay” O’Conners or the “anti-gay” Christians she accuses of selfishness and hate. Of course that does not stop her from lashing out behind her keyboard and saying,

Come on non-affirming Christians: Is this really God’s heart? Does this really convey a message of love? Is this really what Jesus would do? You are being duped and misled.

Also unlikely that the O’Conners read Cottrell blog. So we won’t assume that Cottrell accusatory blog prompted the O’Conner’s next move: a generous act of love demonstrating Micah 6:8 beyond their laptops and newsfeeds.

The O’Conner family expressed their wish to share the $842,387 funds with disabled children, abused women, public safety officer foundations, local churches and a battered grandmother struggling to operate a floral shop and live by her faith. Can you believe it?

As the Daily Mail reported:

 They revealed they are set to share their new fortune with disabled children, a women’s help group, fire fighters, police trusts, Christian churches and Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman, 70, who was fined after declaring she would not serve a gay wedding.

How’s that for social justice?

Comments made by Crystal O’Conner (who looks no more than 25 years old) during a spontaneous interview with a local reporter sparked nationwide attention to the pizzeria. Her media mistake? She answered a hypothetical question about catering a gay wedding ceremony with truth and conviction.

After attacks smearing her character and compassion, Crystal expressed, “People were looking at me and all that brought my spirits down. But the support we got also lifted me and made me stronger and humbled.”

This young Christian woman has more chutzpah when it comes to defending orthodoxy and upholding convictions than most three times her age. And a heart to turn an ugly, aggressive situation into an act of justice, loving kindness and humility for some of the most vulnerable among us.

ABC57 News – See the Difference Michiana

 

  1. Comment by BrendtWayneWaters on April 10, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    So, given the fact that it comprises less than 15% of the article and is buried in the second half thereof, is it safe to assume that the good news of the money being shared is of much less importance than the fact that it disproves others? Funny, I thought that the Christian’s yardstick was Jesus, not others.

  2. Comment by rickplasterer on April 12, 2015 at 8:07 pm

    BrendtWayneWaters,

    Your moral condemnation of the moral condemnation of sodomy blinds you to anything else. The point of the article is quite clearly that conservative Christians do show compassion. Reasonably most of the people who contributed were Evangelicals. The O’Connors then showed compassion to others in need, the disabled, those engaged in charitable activities, and Barronelle Stutzman, the Washington florist, who like them was persecuted for righteousness sake.

    Rick Plasterer
    Staff writer/IRD

  3. Comment by BrendtWayneWaters on April 12, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    If you actually read what I wrote, rather than trying to read between the lines (and failing miserably), you’ll note that *nowhere* do I even comment on (let alone condemn) “the moral condemnation of sodomy”. My comment was on the fact that the compassion and graciousness shown by the O’Connors was given extremely short shrift in the article, whereas the “Nyah! Nyah! Told ya!” comprises over 85% of the article (making your contention about the alleged point absolutely laughable).

    See, Rick, the world is not binary. Just because I am critical of Ms Vicari’s handling of this issue doesn’t mean that I stand with her ideological opponents on the issue or against her on all points of the issue. So to contend that I am condemning “the moral condemnation of sodomy” simply because I think she mishandled one aspect of the issue is asinine and grossly presumptuous. Please stop telling me what I do and do not believe.

    Someone on Twitter linked to this article with the description “#MemoriesPizza shares $842k windfall with disabled children, abused women, charities”. I was delighted to hear this news and clicked on the link. 400 words and over half a post later, I was wondering if I was even in the right place, as all that was said was a run-down of what folks on the other side of the argument had written, and how they turned out to be quite wrong.

    It is, by no means, “quite clear” what the point of the article is, and that’s why I asked. But given the evidence before us, it seems highly probable that the point is much more about how others were wrong than about the wonderful work that God is doing in and through the O’Connors. God (through the O’Connors) took yet another culture war issue, with both sides sticking their tongues out at each other, and turned it into something to bless many — a wonderful picture of His redeeming love. By a “score” of 85-15, this seems to be far less important to Ms Vicari than the fact that others are in error.

    Brendt Wayne Waters
    Random Schmo

  4. Comment by rickplasterer on April 13, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    Brendt Wayne Waters,

    My understanding of your criticism of Chelsen’s article was that Christian charity is in this case unworthy because it disapproves of others (i.e., is “antigay”). Apparently this is not what you meant. I regret having made that assumption. It does seem to be the point of the religious left, however. I am glad you feel the money was well spent, and I do apologize for having misunderstood you.

    Rick Plasterer

  5. Comment by BrendtWayneWaters on April 15, 2015 at 3:59 am

    If by “money well spent”, you are referring to the GoFundMe money given to the O’Connors, then no, I didn’t say that, either. That’s simply the same assumption in reverse. My one and only point was that Christianity is not an ideological MMA fight. We get NOTHING when we win. Yet the vast majority of the article is about how others were/are wrong.

    I imagine that my first sentence is going to engender more questions. By implying that the GoFundMe was not necessarily “money well spent”, I am not saying that charity is invalid if it is given by those who disapprove of something, or even if their giving is partly motivated by said disapproval.

    But when the overwhelming motivation (like, oh, I dunno — 85% or more) is to prove others wrong, then we’re getting into very unChrist-like territory.

  6. Comment by Melissa Windom on April 10, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    Nice to see good people stepping up to the plate. Truly, we live in a dark and troubling era, decent people getting death threats. Trust and courage are more essential than ever.

  7. Comment by o0Nighthawk0o on April 22, 2015 at 12:25 pm

    I went to Memories Pizza the week they reopened. I met and spoke with Chrystal. I thanked her for standing up for what she believes in. She is a very quiet, humble person and thanked me for the kind words. What I found striking was the difference in the way the restaurant really looks and what was presented in the ABC 57 report. By looking at the news report you would think the whole restaurant was plastered with biblical sayings and Christian decorations. Hardly. There were very few such things and most of the decorations were celebrity pictures or historical pictures of the area and their family. The whole thing with Memories Pizza was edited and presented by 57 news to show Christian business owners in a negative light and get people pissed off. Thankfully it backfired on them with Americans stepping up and showing that they believe in freedom for everyone. And many others will benefit from this.

  8. Comment by Namyriah on April 23, 2015 at 9:35 am

    Video cameras do not film reality, they cherry-pick reality (meaning, distort it). If someone had followed Christ around with a camera, they could probably manage to make him look like a terrorist or a lunatic.

  9. Comment by abinboothbay on April 28, 2015 at 11:41 am

    My wife and I strongly believe in Social Justice, and the redistribution of our income. That’s why we’re active in charitable giving. We believe that’s God’s way. We don’t believe in using coercion to force people to redistribute their income, any more than we would believe that if you have 2 cars, the government should take one of them to give someone who is car-less.

  10. Comment by abinboothbay on April 28, 2015 at 11:50 am

    My gay nephew is getting married in a church, by a pastor, in October. I don’t know that I have ever been so conflicted. I OWE my sister, big time, for always supporting me, so it will be hard to tell her we won’t be attending. By attending, I would be participating in something that I believe is offensive to God…and in HIS house. That’s like poking God in the eye.

    Using the government to force me to participate is not what the Founders of our country had in mind.

    The gay movement started out with the goal of gaining tolerance, but has morphed into nothing more than a bullying political movement. A backlash is in their future.

    God reigns!

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